


Secrets of the Phoenix

by AgenderAcid



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Magical creatures, Aromantic Asexual Pidge | Katie Holt, Artistic Keith, Bird/Human Hybrids, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Male Character, Demiromantic Keith, Demisexuality, Developing Friendships, Established Allura/Shiro (Voltron), Established Relationship, F/M, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Heterosexual Shiro, Keith and Shiro are Adoptive Siblings, Lactose Intolerant Keith, M/M, Mer Allura, Multi, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, POV Multiple, POV Third Person, Phoenix Keith, Sphinx Pidge, Thunder Bird Shiro, Wizard Hunk, bisexual allura, demisexual keith, hyrbrids, mer lance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-20 14:52:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 75,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13720020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgenderAcid/pseuds/AgenderAcid
Summary: Keith is your average 15 year old. Except, he's a phoenix hybrid and doesn't leave the house often...or really at all. Five years ago, he dropped out of school. However, his brother Shiro and his brother's girlfriend Allura have decided to convince him to start going to school again. He agrees, terms and conditions included. However, things become instantly complicated as he now has to navigate high school without giving away that he's a hybrid, since hybrids are not looked highly upon in society.  This becomes more risky as he starts to gain friends.





	1. You Want Me to What Now?

A knock sounded on the door. “Keith, can we talk?” Shiro’s voice asked from the other side.

Keith put down his book and went over to open his bedroom door. “Sure. What is it?”

“Allura and I have been thinking and we agree that it might be good for you to start attending school with us. It will help you get more familiar with the human world and get you out of your room,” he suggested.

Keith’s wings twitched, ripples of flames rolling across the feathers. “But I don’t want to go to school. I’m more comfortable here, spending my days how I want to.” His eyes moved towards his massive bookshelf and the pile of drawing materials propped against it.

Shiro followed his gaze and gave a small smile. “I know you enjoy your reading and drawing but I believe school would be good for you. It will teach you things that books can’t.”

“But-”

“Please consider it. You have a couple weeks before it’s too late to register for next year,” he interrupted, dark eyes pleading with his adoptive brother.

Trying and failing to be stubborn, Keith caved in. “Fine, I’ll consider it.”

“Thank you,” Shiro said appreciatively, leaving the doorway and heading back down the hall to his own room.

Keith closed the door and sighed, leaning against it as he thought about the prospect of going to school. Uneasiness curled within him. It was rare he left the house, hiding his wings both annoying and uncomfortable. He only dragged himself outside to either buy more books, acquire art supplies, or get groceries. Otherwise, he spent his days contently on the living room couch or in his room.

Going to school, however, would require him to leave the house every day. He’d have to hide his wings for nearly the whole day. Plus, since he didn’t do it often, his wings occasionally threaten to show up when he was in public. What if that happened at school during a time he couldn’t escape to a bathroom? What if he couldn’t hide them again and got stuck?

At that imagined scenario, he shook his head. _No. No, there is no way I’m willing to go through that for some dumb school. I’d rather avoid even the chance of that happening._

Moving away from the door, he began pacing the room. How does he tell Shiro this? His brother would try to persuade him if he said he was afraid of something bad happening. But what answer would he accept?

His pacing came to an abrupt stop as knocking on his door sounded once again. Going over, he opened it to find Allura standing there. “Hi Allura,” he greeted.

“May I speak with you about attending school?” She asked.

“Do I have a choice?”

“Not really.”

“Look, I’ve already-”

Allura stopped him. “Hear me out. Both me and Shiro agree this will be good for you. You’ll learn more about blending into human society, which you’ll need since you’re a hybrid and don’t exactly have a choice. Also, you can’t make it on your own if you’re constantly afraid of what might happen. Key word is might. Nothing is ever guaranteed.”

“But what if I end up stuck somewhere in a bad situation?”

“Then Shiro or I will help you. Come on, you can’t hide inside forever.”

“I beg to differ.” He started closing the door but Allura stopped it from closing more than halfway.

“Keith,” she growled, voice lowering to a dangerous tone, both pushing against the door. He struggled for a bit more before finally giving in, unable to hold out against her strength for any longer. Jumping away from the door, it slammed open, denting the wall behind it. Allura huffed loudly. “What will it take for you to go to school?”

 

“Nothing. I’m not going,” he replied, stubborn.

“Come on, Keith. Is there really nothing?” He nodded. “Ugh, how about we strike some sort of deal?”

“Like what?”

“What if we sign you up for school, but, if you go through an entire semester and still are against going to school, we’ll let you drop out,” she proposed.

“Tempting, but it needs something more.”

“What do you suggest?”

“I suggest one day off a week with no questions asked and that you and Shiro provide me with as many new books and art supplies as I want. All that on top of your offer,” he answered.

Allura turned thoughtful, debating his proposition. After a minute, she responded. “How about one day off every two weeks?”

Keith went silent, considering it. “Alright, I accept,” he relented.

She smiled and brushed her hands off on her pants. “Good. I’ll go inform Shiro.” Turning around, she left without another word.

Keith watched her leave and began rubbing one of his feathers between his fingers. Still convinced it was a bad idea entirely, he closed his door. Now, to ponder everything he’d just agreed to. If he slipped up, it could mean them having to move. Despite not liking the town, he’d grown attached to this house and would be sad to have to let it go. So many memories lingered within the walls. Losing himself in his thoughts, he tuned out the world.

Time escaped him and the next thing he knew, Shiro was calling him down for dinner. Getting up, he exited his room and walked down the stairs to the kitchen. Grabbing a plate, he picked out food and sat down at the table, waiting for Shiro and Allura to join him. They did not too long after he had taken his seat and they began eating.

“So, Keith, Allura told me you agreed to start school next semester,” Shiro began.

“Yeah, I did.” He didn’t say anything more and Shiro looked upset with his short answer.

“Might I ask what changed your mind? You seemed opposed to the idea earlier.”

Keith put his fork down. “Allura worked out a deal with me. In exchange for going to school, I get as many books and art supplies as I want along with one day off every two weeks. That day don’t include being sick or something. Plus, if I’m still against school at the end of the semester, I can quit.”

Shiro gave Allura a pointed side glance. “She didn’t tell me she had bribed you.”

Allura gave a look of offense. “Plus, we both agree that attending school would be beneficial for him. I just made it a reality. Also, I didn’t even suggest all those terms.”

“It’s true. I suggested the terms, except quitting after a semester. Though I originally wanted one day off per week,” he informed Shiro.

Shiro squinted at them both before relenting. “Alright, as long as you uphold your end, we’ll hold up our end.” The matter settled, they returned to eating in peace.

After finishing dinner, Allura said goodnight to Keith and Shiro, heading back to her own house. Once she left, the house felt strangely quiet. Of them three, Allura always had been the liveliest.

Shiro took this as the perfect time to sit Keith down in the living room and have a conversation. “I know you are probably annoyed with this topic at this point but I want to make certain you actually want to go to school.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Yes, I want to.”

“Are you one hundred percent certain?”

“For the last time, yes! Can we drop this now? I’m tired and I’d like to get some rest,” he complained.

Sending him one more cautious look, Shiro nodded. “Alright, it is late. Goodnight,” he said, standing up and heading to his room.

Lingering for a moment longer, Keith finally got up and went to his bedroom. Standing in front of his mirror, he stared at his face. Perhaps if he tried it and then backed out, telling Shiro he didn’t like it, his brother would accept that answer and wouldn’t talk about it anymore. After all, it couldn't be that bad. At least he hoped. Tearing his eyes away from his reflection, he walked over to his bed and curled up underneath the blankets, wrapping his wings around himself for warmth, glad they could emit heat without being on fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Constructive criticism and feedback is welcome


	2. Welcome to Your First Day of Hell

“Keith, get up!” He pulled the pillow over his head, turning towards the wall, groaning. The voice huffed and arms fought against him for the pillow. “We have an hour before we have to leave! Get your lazy ass up!”

“What time is it even?” Keith grumbled.

“It’s seven o’clock,” Shiro answered.

“So early,” he complained.

“Should I remind you that you agreed to this?”

Rolling over to face his brother, he sighed. “No, I’ll get up.”

“Good! Breakfast is ready. After you get ready, you can eat.” Shiro moved towards the doorway before second guessing himself and turning back to Keith, yanking the pillow from underneath him. “There. That will persuade you to get up faster.” Pillow in hand, he left the room, leaving the door open as well.

“I really hate you sometimes,” Keith said, pushing the blankets off himself and getting out of bed. Shiro either didn’t hear his comment or simply ignored it. Sighing in resignation, he changed into dark jeans and a black shirt, placing a grey jacket on the chair in the corner for later. Going around the room, he packed a bag with stuff he’d need. Pausing for a moment, running a mental checklist on everything, he decided to grab the book he’d been reading, one about the Big Bang theory. Reaching for where it had been last night, his heart skipped a beat to find it missing. Searching around the room frantically, shoving aside stacks of drawings and throwing clothes out of drawers, he recalled everything from yesterday in hopes of finding a clue.

“You have thirty more minutes,” Shiro shouted from the kitchen.

Keith growled in frustration. Moving over to the bed, the last place in the room he hadn’t checked, he peered underneath the bed, hopeful. However, that proved futile. In annoyance, he slammed his hand on the blankets, only to hit something hard. Narrowing his eyes, he threw aside the blankets and released a breath of relief. The book had been hidden underneath them. Shoving it into his bag, he slung it over his shoulder, grabbed his jacket, and left the room.

Walking past the living room, he placed the bag and jacket on the couch. Continuing to the kitchen, he grabbed the plate of food offered to him by Shiro and began scarfing it down.

“You still have your wings visible,” Shiro pointed out. Keith would’ve replied but was preoccupied by his breakfast.

Finished eating, he washed the plate and left it on the counter to dry. Looking at Shiro for the first time that morning, he stopped. Shiro wasn’t dressed unusually. No, it was the fact that his eagle-like wings were not visible that gave Keith pause. He’d never been up early enough to see his brother like this. It was weird.

Shiro rolled his eyes, figuring out why the reason for his surprise. “Come on, we don’t have time for this. Hide your wings and then we have to go.”

Blinking, Keith nodded. “Sorry, you’re right.” Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. Focusing on his breathing, he cleared his mind except for the thought of his wings vanishing. His wings twitched and shuttered before their familiar weight dropped away. Opening his eyes, he glanced over his shoulder to make certain they were gone.

“Alright, get your stuff and let’s head off,” Shiro said, heading to the front door.

Keith went to the living room, put on his jacket, and slung his bag over his shoulder. Following Shiro out the door, he made certain the lock it before closing it. Getting into the black car, he plugged in his headphones, intent on losing himself in his music for the drive.

As they neared the building, Shiro tapped his shoulder and he took out his headphones. “We first have to go to the office and get your schedule, okay? Then I’ll quickly show you around to your classes. After that, it’s up to you. Got that?”

“Okay,” he responded, staring out the window.

Their comfortable silence resumed as they drove into the parking lot and grabbed a spot. Getting out of the car and grabbing his stuff, Keith looked over the school, crossing his arms. It looked massive, larger than any other building he’d seen. His mouth went dry as he followed after Shiro through the doors. Luckily, the office was directly on the left of the entrance so they didn’t have to walk far. Already the dawning fear of getting lost claimed his thoughts.

“Hello. We’re here to get Keith Kogane’s schedule, a new transfer student,” Shiro announced, greeting the office worker.

They nodded, getting up and going over to a filing cabinet, searching through the papers. “How do you spell Kogane?”

“K-o-g-a-n-e.”

The worker searched for a few moments longer, in which Keith felt his legs threaten to buckle, before pulling out a couple pieces of paper and handing them to Shiro. Giving Keith a smile, the worker said, “Welcome to Altea High School.”

“Thank you,” Shiro said to the office worker. “Come on Keith, let’s show you around.” Shiro handed the papers off to Keith and he quickly scanned over them.

_Name: Keith Kogane_   
_Student ID: 1738425_

_Homeroom: Ms. Fern, Room 112_   
_First Block: World Literature, Mr. Widow, Room 103_   
_Second Block: Physical Education, Coach Sutherland, Room 715_   
_Third Block: Chemistry, Ms. Pride, Room 327_   
_Fourth Block: Drawing I, Ms. Dessin, Room 306_

Keith nodded and followed him, thinking about his schedule. It wasn’t bad but why was he required to take a class on world literature and chemistry? When would that ever be useful to him?

“Can I see your schedule?” Shiro asked, hand outstretched expectantly.

He handed it over. “Yeah, here.”

Shiro scanned it. “We have our second class together. That makes things a bit easier.”

“Okay.”

They began walking through the halls, Keith trying his hardest to keep up with where they were. “This school is like a maze,” he complained.

“It’s not that bad. It’ll take time but you’ll get the hang of it,” Shiro encouraged with a soft smile.

Keith frowned. “Alright. Which class is this?” He questioned, gesturing to the room they stopped in front of.

“This is your homeroom. Today you’ll start here but afterwards you’ll only come here on Fridays. And this hall is the 100 hall. Any classes whose room number start with a one will be located on this hall. That makes things a bit simpler, right?”

“I suppose.”

They continued, Shiro pointing out each hall and how to know if he had a class down in. With Shiro guiding him, Keith kept careful note of where all his classes were located, slowly creating a map of the school within his mind.

A bell rang after they finished the tour and students began rushing the halls.

“That’s the signal to start heading to homeroom. Though, every day other than today you will go to your first class at that bell,” Shiro explained, seeing Keith’s confusion. “I’ll see you in second, in about two hours, okay?”

“I-okay,” Keith said, turning away to make his way to his homeroom. He brought up his mental map and started following it as best as he could. Turning down a hall, he stopped in front of a room. This should be it. Checking the room number, he frowned. No, this wasn’t it. This was room 214. Sighing, he continued down the hall.

Another bell sounded and students still in the halls began moving faster. Keith now found himself in front of room 401. “Ugh, this is stupid. Who even designed this school?” He complained in the deserted hall. Continuing to walk, he heard yet another bell. “Great, I’m probably late at this point. Not that I really care.”

Walking through the halls, his eyes scanned the room numbers intently. So focused was he that he didn’t notice the other person until he ran into them.

“Ow! Watch where you’re going,” the other person complained.

“You should’ve been watching where you were going. That way at least one of us would have avoided the other.” The words left his mouth before he even thought about them, an automatic response.

“What even was keeping you so distracted?” The other person, a boy with brown hair and tanned skin, asked.

Keith debated not answering but he decided he’d rather not be wandering the halls for any longer than needed. “I got lost and I’m trying to find my homeroom.”

“Oh, who’s your teacher?”

“Uh, Ms. Fern. Room 112.”

“Cool, we have the same homeroom. I can show you where it is,” the boy said, walking past him, further down the hall. “Come on, we’re late enough as it is.”

Following the stranger, Keith mentally cursed himself for heading in the complete wrong direction. Why didn’t a school with a layout this complicated provide a map or something?

“I’m Lance, by the way. What’s your name?”

“Keith.”

“A man of few words, I see,” Lance commented. Not bothering to give a reply, Keith remained silent the rest of the way to the room.

Arriving at the room, Lance opened the door and walked in. “Sorry we’re late Ms. Fern.”

“I hope you have a good excuse, Lance and...” the teacher paused as she saw Keith. “Oh, is that our new student?” She asked, realisation lighting her gaze.

“Yes, that would be me,” Keith answered. “I’m Keith Kogane.”

“Nice to meet you. You were late because you got lost, I assume?”

“Uh, yes,” he replied, scratching the back of his neck.

“Well, that’s fine. You can take a seat anywhere,” Ms. Fern said with a smile. “Oh, and Lance,” she turned her attention to the other boy, who was currently using Keith as a distraction to try to sneak away to his own seat. “I still need your excuse.”

“Oh, right. My-my bus was late,” he responded.

“I doubt that but whatever. Take your seat,” she told him dismissively.

\---

Once homeroom was over, Keith headed to his first class, which was much easier to find consider it was on the same hall as his homeroom. Getting there rather quickly, he looked over the empty chairs which he could choose from. Walking over, he claimed the desk all the way in the back corner of the room, content where he could see everything going on. Pulling his book out, he began reading, ignoring the people around him.

\---

After literature, Keith made his way to the gym. He didn’t think he’d mind this class, especially with Shiro in it with him. Exercise was one of the few things Shiro could use to convince him to get out of the house.

In the gym, he lined up against the wall like everyone else, choosing to distance himself from the others. Shiro joined him not too long after. The teacher called roll then took them outside to walk around the track. As they were walking, Shiro began talking.

“How’s your first day so far?” He inquired.

“Terrible. I already got lost,” Keith answered.

“Like I said, it just takes a bit. You’ll get the hang of it soon. You’re smart and have a good memory,” Shiro told him, encouragingly.

“You have much more confidence in my abilities than I do in that case.”

\---

After his second classes, Keith begrudgingly left Shiro and went to his third class. Without Shiro, the walk was louder and lonelier. Thankfully, he managed to not get lost on his way to third.

Entering the chemistry classroom, he took note of the seating chart. Apparently, he would be sitting next to someone named Katie Holt. Finding his seat, he sat down and took out his book to read while waiting for class to start. As he read, he watched students enter the room from the corner of his eye.

A bag dropped to the ground beside him, nearly making him jump out of his seat. “Hey, I’m Pidge. I guess we’re going to be lab partners for the semester,” greeted a short, sandy haired person.

“I’m Keith. I thought my lab partner was some girl named Katie though,” he commented, looking over at them.

“That's me. I prefer Pidge though. Also, I use neutral pronouns.” Something flashed through their eyes. “The beginning of eternity, end of time and space. The beginning of every end and the end of every place. What am I?”

Keith blinked, tilting his head to the side. “Huh?”

“Oh, sorry. Sometimes I do that. It’s a habit. You don’t have to answer it,” they replied, words running together.

“Um, okay.” At his response, something in their eyes shifted again. They lapsed into silence as the bell rang and the teacher, Ms. Pride, started class.

\---

Chemistry ended and Keith stopped Pidge before they could leave. “The letter e.” Their face twisted with confusion. “That’s the answer to your riddle. The letter e.” All throughout class he had thought about the riddle and was certain he had the right answer.

Pidge’s eyes lit up. “Oh, that’s right!” Their eyes flickered over to the clock. “Well, we should head to our next classes but see you around later.” They waved as they grabbed their bag and took off.

Keith couldn’t suppress the small bit of pride that surged through him while he went to his last class. He rather liked Pidge. They made a good companion. Perhaps he may consider them a friend sometime in the future.

Arriving at his drawing class with only a minimal amount of confusion about the school’s layout, he grabbed a seat in the back of the room once again. Taking out his sketchbook, he began mindlessly drawing. Drawing was an activity he found to be calming, important for his first day of being outside the house for multiple hours on end.

\---

With his last class finished, Keith was more than ready to go home and get some peace and quiet. Leaving the classroom, he followed the stream of students outside the building where he met up with Shiro. Going to the car, he hopped in, eager to leave. “Come on. I want to get home.”

“Wait a minute,” Shiro said. “We have to wait for Allura.” Sighing, Keith grabbed his book from his bag and began reading to pass the time.

Luckily, Allura didn’t take long. Though, Keith did get kicked into the backseat. As they headed home, Allura turned around to face him. “So, how was your first day?”

“It was awful. People are too loud and the classes are too long. I’m taking an off day tomorrow,” he complained.

“Oh, didn’t we tell you? You can’t skip during the first two weeks,” Allura informed him, a slight smirk on her face.

“That’s not fair though.”

“It’s completely fair. You have to at least give school a try. You’ll feel better once you make a friend or two,” Shiro said, jumping into the conversation.

Keith choose to end the conversation there, putting in his headphones and turning on his music. He’d had his fill of human interaction for the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Constructive criticism and feedback is welcome


	3. Only Here to Avoid Riding the Bus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for the Americans: football = soccer
> 
> Also, I've settled on an upload schedule. I'll upload another chapter every third wednesday.

“Why do I have to go to this?” Keith groaned as they walked to the football field behind the school.

“Would you rather ride the bus home?” Shiro asked pointedly.

“No,” he grumbled. “Once was enough for a lifetime.” On the first Friday of the school year, Shiro’s car had refused to start, forcing the two to ride the bus that day. The sheer amount of noise and chaos had driven Keith into a sour mood for the entire day, making him more asocial than usual.

“Besides, I thought you enjoyed football.”

“That’s only if I’m playing against you and nobody else is there,” Keith retorted, arms crossed over his chest.

“Don’t worry. Try-outs shouldn’t take too long. Most people are from previous seasons, almost guaranteeing them a spot, and few new people ever show up.”

Keith fought another audible groan. He wanted to be home and stretch his wings. Second week in, the eight hours of school was too long to keep them hidden. With the added time for football team try-outs, he might lose his mind.

Reaching the edge of the field, they split up, Shiro heading over to join the group of people on the field and Keith going to the bleachers. Out of the corner of his eye, Keith watched the crowd greet Shiro with waves and cheers. Gaze falling to the ground, a sense of loneliness washed over him. Right before he could sit down, a voice called his name.

Looking up, he spotted Pidge sitting off to his right, a large dark-skinned boy next to them. Pidge gestured for him to come over. “Hey Keith. What are you here for?” Pidge asked curiously.

“My brother is here for try-outs,” he answered, pointing at the group on the field. “What about you?”

“Our friend Lance is trying out for the team too. Hunk wanted to watch and I need to work on something with Hunk, so here we are,” they explained, drawing attention to the laptop resting on their lap.

“Cool. What are you working on?”

At his question, Pidge’s gaze became uneasy. Their eyes shifted between their laptop and Hunk, a silent debate passing between them.

“Come on Pidge. I’m sure we can tell him,” Hunk said.

“I don’t know,” they responded, still uneasy. “You don’t even know him.”

“He looks trustworthy though,” he returned.

Pidge chewed on their bottom lip for a moment before caving. “Fine. We suspect someone on the football team isn’t human. At least, not entirely.”

Keith felt his breath catch in his throat. “What?”

“You know how there are magickal creatures and they sometimes disguise themselves as human?” He nodded. “Well, for the past two years, whenever the team loses or has a bad game, there are storm-like winds, even if the sky is completely clear. We have our main suspects and we’re watching the team to figure out who it is.”

“Interesting. Who do you suspect?” Keith inquired.

“We suspect three of the older players. Harald and James are on the list,” Hunk informed him. “However, our top suspect is the team’s star player, Shiro.”

Keith’s heart stopped as Hunk said Shiro’s name. His thoughts began racing. _That’s not good. They could find out the truth. Not good. Not good at all._ His mind was reeling and his legs threatened to buckle. Breathing became difficult, his throat feeling constricted. A familiar warmth spread across his back. Realisation dawning, he dropped his book and turned away, making his way down the bleachers. “I have to go to the bathroom,” he called back to them.

Moving as fast as he could without drawing attention to himself, he rushed into the school and ducked into the nearest bathroom. As soon as he entered the bathroom, his wings reappeared, tearing twin slits in the back of his shirt, flames rolling over the feathers. “Shit,” he cursed softly, staring at his reflection in the mirror. He was thankful that at least school was over so the chance of running into someone was slim.

Pulling his phone from his pocket, he sent Shiro a text, asking for help and giving his location. Sighing, he leaned against the closest wall, knowing Shiro likely wouldn’t see the text until after the try-outs. He reached for his book, only to remember he’d left it behind in his rush. Groaning, he sighed. Reminded of the cause for his current situation, he decided he might as well think over it. At least he knew so he could try and mislead them. After all, it wouldn’t be good for anyone if either of them were discovered.

~∞~

Shiro stepped off the field, the coach making him take a break so another person could go through the trout process. Breathing heavily, he was grateful for the break. Walking over to the water fountain and bending down to get a drink, he recalled that his phone had gone off a couple minutes earlier with an alert. After getting his fill of water and calming his breathing, he retrieved his phone from his pocket. Scanning over the text, he groaned.

“Hey Shiro, what’s up?” A voice asked.

Looking to his left, he saw Lance standing there with his arm propped up against the wall. “Hi Lance. It’s nothing. My brother just needs some help.”

“Might I be of any help?”

“No, I can handle it,” Shiro answered.

“Ah, alright. I’ll leave you to it then.” Lance went over to the water fountain and leaned down to take a drink.

Shiro glance back at his before walking over to the coach. “Coach Sutherland, I’ve got to use the bathroom.”

“Okay, be quick about it,” the coach responded.

Dashing off towards the school, he sent a text to Keith that he was on his way. Sprinting inside, he entered the bathroom Keith had said he was in. The other was standing in front of a mirror, face twisted in frustration. It was clear why he had asked for help.

“Hey, I came as fast as I could,” Shiro said.

Keith jumped in surprise, turning around. “Finally. Thank the eternal flame.”

“So, what happened?” He asked.

“I was talking with these two people, Pidge and Hunk. They told me they had suspicions that someone on the football team wasn’t human. Also, you are their top suspect.” His breathing increased in speed as he talked, wings twitching as a fresh wave of flames brushed over the feathers.

Shiro frowned. “That’s troublesome. However, it can be dealt with later. What’s important now is getting you calmed down.”

“I am calm,” he insisted, despite it being clear he was not.

“It doesn’t help you to deny it. You know you can’t hide your wings if your stressed or anxious.”

“I’m not-fine. I am stressed, okay? I don’t want to have to move towns again because one of us got found out,” he admitted.

“At least you can admit it.”

“Shut up. Just help me.”

“Okay, first close your eyes and focus on your breathing.” Keith complied and Shiro waited a couple seconds before continuing. “Now slow your breathing. Set a tempo and stick to it. Remember, patience yields focus.” As Keith proceeded, his breathing slowed and his posture became more relaxed. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes. “Do you think you can hide your wings now?”

“I can try,” he answered. Closing his eyes once again, his wings and twitched and shivered but didn’t vanish. Reopening his eyes, he sighed. Glancing over his shoulder, he frowned. “I guess that answers your question.”

Shiro frowned as well. “I guess we have to find another solution.” Watching Keith continue to try and hide his wings, he began thinking of potential answers to their problem. Eventually, an idea hit him. “Here,” he said, taking off his jacket and handing it over. “Use this to help hide them. Then, head to the car. Keys are in the left pocket.”

“Are you sure? I could wait here while you continue with try-outs. I’m sure I’ll eventually be able to hide them,” Keith told him, uneasy.

“No, take it. It will be better this way. We’ll both feel more at ease knowing you’re safe in the car,” Shiro responded, shoving the jacket into Keith’s arms. “Now I got to return to try-outs. Be careful and don’t get caught,” he called, running out of the bathroom.

Sprinting back to the field, he waved to the coach to catch their attention and show he was back. They returned a dismissive wave, informing him they saw his return.

~∞~

Once Shiro left, Keith stood motionless in the centre of the bathroom, staring at the entrance, hands gripping the jacket. He debated not leaving the bathroom and sticking to his suggested plan. However, his brother’s words had made sense. It would most likely be safer to use the jacket and get out now rather than wait and be trapped if someone came into the bathroom.

First things first, before he put on the jacket, he’d have to hide the bottom half of his wings. Unfortunately, due to how the bottom feathers reached the ground, the only way to accomplish this was to stuff his wings into his pants. Wrinkling his nose, he unbuttoned his pants and slid them to the ground. Tucking his wings as tightly as he could against his body, he brought his pants back up, making sure they covered all of his wings below his waist. Content but uncomfortable, he threw on the jacket. Because of their different builds, covering the top area was easier and significantly more comfortable.

Checking to make sure his wings weren’t extremely noticeable through the clothes, he took a deep breath. There was no going back. If he messed up, disaster would ensue. Leaving the bathroom, he began making his way to the car.

~∞~

Lance left the football field immediately after try-outs concluded. Both Pidge and Hunk were distracted by their research, wrapping up their observations for the day, and while he talked to Shiro on a regular basis, he’d been lost in his thoughts today for some reason. Therefore, Lance had no reason to linger, especially since he already knew where the trout results would be located on Monday.

Passing through the parking lot, a flash of red appeared in peripheral vision. Turning towards the direction he’d seen it originate from, he was disappointed to be unable to locate it. However, he was certain it had been there and wasn’t a mere hallucination or trick or the light or something. Where he was standing, a small silver car could be deduced as the place where he’d saw the flash. A recognisable silver car. Shiro’s car. Well aware of the nature of Pidge and Hunk’s research, he made a mental note to inform them later. It would interest them. For now, he continued onward to his car, ready to head home and relax.

\---

Later that evening, Lance was relaxing in the bath, tail spilling over the side. Closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the pillow propped up on the wall, he let the water hydrate his scales and skin, thoughts wandering. This was a near daily activity for him. It was nice to get away from everything and have some time to himself.

While thinking, his mind drifted to earlier events. Eyes flying open, he would’ve jumped up if he was able to. He’d forgotten to tell Pidge about the thing in the parking lot!

Grabbing his phone, which he’d placed on top of the toilet next to the bathtub before starting his bath, he dialled their number.

“Hello Lance,” they greeted after picking up the phone.

“Hey Pidge. What are you up to?”

“I finished my homework and am currently running over my research,” they answered, the clicking of their keyboard carrying through the phone.

“Oh, cool. How’s that coming along?”

“Fine. Remember that wind that started up after Shiro returned from wherever he went? I’m pretty sure something happened. Though, it wasn’t something major since the wind wasn’t too bad compared to notes from previous events.”

“He told me his brother needed his help or something right before he told the coach he had to go to the bathroom. That might be part of it,” Lance suggested.

“And you decided only now to tell me this?” Pidge asked exasperated as the sound of their keyboard clicking floated through the phone. “Anyways, why are you curious about this all now?”

Lance grinned. “Because I have something you might be able to add to your notes, aside from what I’ve already added.”

“And that would be...?” They asked after he paused for a few moments.

“After try-outs, while walking to my car, I saw a flash of red. I’m like ninety percent certain it came from Shiro’s car. It was directly where I’d seen the flash out of the corner of my eye. The flash was similar to a fire or something,” he said, thinking back to the few details he could recall.

Pidge went quiet for a moment. “Hmm, interesting. That doesn’t match up with any of my current-” They fell silent, not a single sound emanating from their side. “Wait, you said it looked like a fire, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Remember how you’ve been telling us that something feels off this semester? How you’ve felt weaker?”

“Mhm, yeah. My skin feels all prickly. Like when your foot falls asleep, except everywhere. Just an odd fuzzy feeling. It’s actually caused me to have to do my hydration routine more often than normal.” He paused. “What does this have to do with anything?”

“Well, it’s interesting because the last time you felt something like that, we were around a hybrid with fire abilities.”

“Oh, I’d forgotten about that.” Lance squirmed a bit in the tub as he remembered who Pidge was referring to. “But who could it be?”

“Well, there are two options: a weak hybrid who is only now getting their abilities or a new student who isn’t as human as they appear,” they responded. “I wonder...” Once again, they fell silent. Lance could practically hear the wheels of their brain turning. A couple minutes passed before they spoke up. “Tell me again about what happened with Shiro before he left.”

~∞~

Pidge’s fingers flew over the keyboard as they typed up everything Lance was telling them, their mind spinning as they began connecting events. Once Lance finished talking, they scanned over their notes. “I have a suspicion on who it might be.”

“Really? Just from that little bit of information?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing concrete, obviously, but there is some good evidence for it.”

“Can you explain it to me?” Lance requested.

They took a deep breath. “Today, Hunk and I ran into Keith at the try-outs. He mentioned that he was there because his brother was trying out for the team. As far as our knowledge serves, no new transfer students tried out for the team. With your provided information, we’ve learned that Shiro’s brother needed his help during try-outs. Now, have we ever heard Shiro talk about having a brother before?”

“I don’t think so,” Lance mussed. “At least, I don’t remember him ever mentioning having a brother.”

“Yep. Also, Keith ran off to the bathroom early into the try-outs. Shiro coincidentally rushed off to the bathroom after learning that his brother needed his help. While it is very possible that he merely didn’t want the coach to see him on his phone, as we know how Coach Sutherland feels about using phones during gym or during practice, it is also equally likely that he was going to help Keith,” Pidge rambled, typing out everything as she talked.

“But how does that make Keith a fire magickal creature?” Lance questioned.

“We’ve almost confirmed that Shiro is a magickal creature or a hybrid of one. It would make sense that his brother would be one as well, though clearly of a different type. Also, Keith went to the bathroom after we told him about our research. Now, this is entirely speculation, but he might be bad at controlling his abilities in situations of being extremely worried, which would be a likely result from finding out his brother was under speculation of being a magickal creature. After all, we’re not supposed to expose ourselves to humans. We all know how they feel about hybrids,” they explained. “Do mind that is a giant speculation and has no evidence at all.”

Lance was quiet, seeming at a loss for words. “Wow, that’s impressive. I don’t think your ability to draw conclusions like that will ever fail to amaze me.”

Pidge laughed. “You flatterer.”

“No really, that’s amazing. You’ve concluded this all so quickly. That has to have been no more than an hour.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you...or Hunk,” they responded. A splash echoed from the other side of the line. Pidge paused and frowned. “Are you seriously in the bath right now?”

Lance laughed shakily. “Um, no. Of course, I’m not in the bath while talking to you.”

Their eyes narrowed. “Sure. Then what was that splash?”

“That was...” he was silent, unable to find a cover up.

“Yeah, I thought so.” They rolled their eyes, not caring that he couldn’t see it. “Next time, call afterwards.”

“I didn’t want to forget about the flash of red again,” he explained. “Anyway, what are we going to do?

“Hmm.” Slowly, their eyes drifted over to Keith’s book, the one he left behind after going to the bathroom, that was lying on their desk. “We’ll need to get closer to him. Become friends with him. Get him to trust us. Plus,” they added, an idea forming, “I have an idea I want to try.”

“Your tone tells me you have something devious plan,” Lance commented.

Pidge smiled. “It’ll just be something to test his reaction.”

“Alright then. Well, I have to go. Good luck with whatever you have planned. Talk to you later,” Lance said before hanging up.

Putting their phone down, they saved their work and closed their laptop. Walking over to the desk, they grabbed a scrap of paper and began planning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Constructive feedback and advice is welcome


	4. May Have Been Figured Out Already

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, I do have a tumblr. I don't do much but, if you want to ask questions or something, it's there
> 
> https://acidtheagenderdragon.tumblr.com/

Keith was already sitting down in his seat when Pidge entered the classroom. He had his nose buried in one of his favourites books, one about dragons, with his headphones on so he didn’t notice Pidge until they tapped his shoulder. Taking out his headphones and placing his book down, he looked over at them.

“Hey, you left this on the bleachers Friday,” they said, wearing a soft smile, handing him the book he’d dropped before having to rush to the bathroom.

Blinking, it took him a moment to register what they’d said. “Oh, thanks.” Taking the book, he absent mindedly began flipping through the pages.

“No problem. I’m always willing to help a friend out.”

Keith’s heart skipped a beat at them referring to him as a friend. He hadn’t thought of them as that close. “Nice to know,” he replied in a small voice. As he flipped to the page he’d left off on, a piece of paper fluttered out from between the pages, landing on the floor by his feet. Curious, he leaned down and picked it, flipping it over to read the scrawled-out words.

_A sapphire caught sight of a flame’s fleeting existence on the eve of last week. What one tries to hide will always be revealed in the end._

His brow furrowed as he considered the odd riddle-like statement. It was weirdly simplistic in its wording. Pondering over it, he thought about what it could mean.

Suddenly, his eyes went wide. _It can’t be. No one could have seen me Friday. I didn’t run across anyone and I’d made certain my wings were covered before leaving the bathroom. But, that’s the only thing that makes sense. After all, you wouldn’t give someone a riddle unless they could figure out. Why make it impossible to solve?_

Hands shaking, he stood up and walked over to the trash, dropping the paper in, eyes glazed over with a thin layer of fright. Back in his seat, he felt a warmth spreading across his back. Immediately, he began trying to distract himself from the paper. He couldn’t randomly sprint out of class. It would draw to much suspicion, especially if someone already discovered him.

“Keith? Are you okay?” Pidge asked, a look of worry upon their face.

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just-I just remembered something that I forgot to do this morning.”

“Oh, alright.” They turned away and started getting ready for class.

His gaze fell to the book he’d been reading before Pidge came in. Picking it up, he began thinking over the plot and what all had happened up to the point where he was. Gradually, the warmth faded and he sighed in relief. One crisis averted for now.

\---

“Alright students, you may work with a group of up to four people to finish your practice worksheet,” Ms. Pride instructed, dismissing the class to get started on their work.

Pidge hopped up and went off to work with another group of people. Keith stayed behind, having no friends to work with, even if he wanted to. Popping in his headphones, he turned on his music to be a background noise while he worked.

As he worked, his brows furrowed further and further. He knew he was doing the problems wrong but he couldn’t place where the mistake was happening. Groaning, he fell back in his chair, back hitting the chair’s back. This is so stupid! When will I ever need this in my daily life?

While he was glaring at his paper, someone tapped on his shoulder. Taking one of his headphones out, he didn’t bother to look over at them before speaking. “What?” He grumbled.

“Sorry for bothering you but I noticed you seem to be having trouble. Might I be able to help?” Pidge asked.

“Oh, that’d be nice, I guess,” he answered, a prickle of regret passing through him for snapping at someone who earlier referred to him as friend and now offered help.

“Alright. By the way, my friends came over with me too.” Keith looked up at the two people now sitting across the table from him. “You know Hunk from the try-outs the other day. The other one is Lance.”

“Yeah, I met him on the first day. He’s in my homeroom,” Lance commented.

Pidge sat down. “Cool.” Turning back to Keith, they glanced at his paper. “So, what part are you struggling with?”

Keith sat up. “I don’t know. I think I’m doing it right but the answers I’m getting are obviously wrong,” he sighed.

“Hm, okay. Show me how you’re typing it into your calculator,” they requested. Picking up his calculator, he began entering the problem. “Stop there,” Pidge interrupted. “I see where your problem is.” They took the calculator out of his hands and started typing in the same formula but with significant differences. “See this?” He nodded. “Your problem is that you’re typing it in wrong for your calculator. You have to type it in specifically like this. Otherwise, the calculator gets confused and solves the formula in a way different than you want it to solve it.”

“Oh,” he commented. “Sorry, I’m not really used to things like this.”

“It’s fine. Did you not do well in algebra?” They questioned.

His mind went blank. Obviously, he hadn’t dealt with advanced maths since he dropped out of school five years prior. It had no practical use in daily life. But he supposed he had to at least try to maintain the illusion that he had some semblance of formal education up till now. “Uh, yeah, I’m not that good at math,” he mumbled, not wanting to leave the question hanging.

“Don’t feel embarrassed,” Lance encouraged. “Sometimes during the semester, I got pretty close to failing last year. Luckily, I managed to bring up my grade before the semester ended.”

Keith scowled. “That doesn’t make me feel better at all.”

“I’m just trying to be helpful,” Lance said, throwing his hands up in defence.

“Anyway,” Pidge said, ignoring Lance’s interruption. “You understand what you’re doing now, Keith?”

“Yes, thank you,” he responded, grateful.

They smiled. “It’s no problem. Now, let’s get this worksheet done with.” All of them resumed working, talking and sharing answers, making sure everyone was on the same page, not letting anyone get behind the rest.

~∞~

Once class had finished, Pidge packed up their stuff. “See you tomorrow, Keith,” they said before meeting up with Lance and Hunk so they could walk to their next class.

“So, any interesting observations with your plan? You never did tell me what it was exactly,” Lance questioned.

Pidge gave a slight smirk. “You could say that. All I did was stick a little riddle I knew he’d solve in his book, which he left behind at football try-outs.”

“What did you write?” Hunk questioned.

“I just told him that someone saw something similar to a flame on Friday and that secrets never stay hidden. It was enough that most people would consider unimportant but our target would understand and be concerned about it.”

“What was his reaction?” Lance asked curiously.

“Interesting to say the least,” they mused. “It definitely strengthened my suspicions.”

Hunk tilted his head but didn’t question their vague response. “What about the other new students?”

“I don’t have any classes with them so that’s for you two to deal with,” Pidge answered.

“But that’s a bit unfair,” Hunk complained.

“No worries.” Lance flashed a confident smile. “I’ll handle Lucy and Alexa while Hunk deals with Jonathan.”

“Whatever you guys decide,” they said before entering the classroom on the left. “See you later.” Lance and Hunk waved before continuing down the hall.

Taking their seat in class, they fought to suppress a laugh. They doubted Lance would have any success with either Lucy or Alexa. However, it wouldn’t be much of a loss. Keith was their focus. His reaction has been interesting indeed.

~∞~

Sitting in art class, Keith was trying to avoid thinking about the events of chemistry class. If he dwelled too much on the fact that he’d likely been seen Friday, he’d end up in the same situation.

“That’s a lovely drawing,” Ms. Dessin commented over his shoulder.

Her comment broke his focus. “Oh, thank you.” Blood rushed to his face at the compliment, something unusual as he never shared his art before. The teacher didn’t seem to notice as she walked over to the next student.

Gazing down at his drawing, he examined it. The picture was of a shadowed figure, their back to the viewer, overlooking a vast body of water from atop a cliff. Subconsciously, he had begun adding a pair of drooping wings to the figure. Sighing, he continued drawing.

\---

Once class was over, he exited the room and jumped, shocked to see Shiro waiting for him outside. “This is new,” he said, approaching his brother.

“We’re going to the gym to look at the poster for who all are on the football team,” Shiro responded. “I didn’t want to leave you waiting in the parking lot.”

“Makes sense.”

They headed to the gym. Along the way, several people waved to Shiro as they passed. Keith took note of each interaction, the smile that flashed across Shiro’s face, the friendly waves he returned. He almost smiled to see how happy and at ease his brother seemed to be at this school.

Arriving at the gym, they located the poster by the small group gathered in front of a section of the wall. Off to the side, Keith spotted Pidge and Hunk talking together in hushed voices. As he and Shiro drew closer to the crowd, he halted, allowing Shiro to go ahead. While lingering, he debated going to talk to Hunk and Pidge but decided against it. Their conversation seemed too important to be disrupted.

~∞~

As they talked with Hunk, Pidge observed Keith arriving alongside Shiro. Trying to be subtle, they filed away that bit of information. A wave of sadness passed over them as they noted Keith’s uncomfortableness and loneliness.

“Pidge. Pidge!” Hunk’s voice dragged them out of their thoughts. “Are you even listening?”

They grimaced. “Sorry, what were you saying?”

“I was telling you about my conversation with Jonathan, one of the new kids this semester,” he sighed. “While he’s interesting, I doubt that he is a viable suspect.”

“Ah, okay. I’m still convinced it’s Keith so don’t worry about anything,” Pidge told him. “It doesn’t really matter at the moment.”

“Oh, alright,” he said. “What distracted you anyway?” Looking around, he spotted Keith. Turning back to Pidge, he frowned. “Hey, just saying, what you did earlier wasn’t nice.”

“Huh?”

“You gave him that note that basically said someone knew he’s not human,” he explained. “It’s actually kind of mean. I mean, you know how most people feel about magickal creatures and nonhumans. If one of us received something like that, we’d panic. I’d be let off the hook a bit since technically I’m only a human who practices magick, but still. I just disagree with how you handled it.”

Pidge diverted their gaze to the floor tiles. “Yeah, I suppose it wasn’t the best move on my part. But, you must admit, it gave us some information.”

“Still...” he trailed off, knowing he didn’t have to reiterate his opinion.

Their conversation faded into comfortable silence as the crowd steadily dispersed. Soon, only them, Keith, Lance, and Shiro were left.

“Hey Shiro, we both made the team again,” Lance exclaimed, draping his arm across Shiro’s shoulders.

Shiro grinned. “Yep, both outfielders as well.”

Pidge rolled their eyes as the two continued making small talk. “Lance, can we go yet? I need to get home and you’re my only ride.”

Lance removed his arm, letting it fall to his side, and turned to Pidge. “Yeah, alright. See you later Shiro!” Walking over to them, he took notice of Keith standing nearby. “Hi Keith. Fancy seeing you here.”

“Hello,” Keith returned, not appearing to be in the mood for talking.

“Keith came with me,” Shiro spoke up. “He’s my brother so I take him home every day.”

“Oh, cool,” he commented, rubbing the back of his neck.

Pidge reached her tolerance point as her phone buzzed, showing a new text from Matt. “Come on Lance. Bye Shiro. Bye Keith,” they said before walking away down the hall, Hunk and Lance not far behind.

\---

“Peace out. See you tomorrow,” Pidge called as they hopped out of the car, pulling their bag with them. Walking up to the front door, they waved to the blue car leaving the driveway then quietly nudged open the door and slipped inside. Closing the door behind them, they revealed their wings and tail, stretching them. It always felt good to not have to hide their wings and tail. Though, they had gotten used to it over the years. They walked upstairs to their room, attempting to be as quiet as possible. Reaching the door to their room, they jumped as a voice spoke behind them.

“Welcome home,” Matt greeted.

Swallowing a growl, Pidge turned to face him. “Thanks.”

“Dinner is almost ready. You were close to being late,” he commented casually.

Turning away, they twisted the doorknob and opened the door. “Well, I wasn’t. Now I’m going to get started on my school work.”

“You mean research.” Pidge’s golden eyes glanced over their shoulder warily. “I know school work is something you do much later at night. Don’t try to fool me.”

“Can I help it if my research is more interesting?” they asked, relenting. Dropping their bag, they grabbed their laptop and hopped onto the bed, powering on the computer.

“Nah, homework sucks.” Matt entered the room and perched on the edge of the bed. “So, can I know what it is you’re researching?”

Pidge opened their various documents, resizing them so they all fit onto the screen. “Alright, if you really want to know.” They flip their laptop so the screen faces Matt. “I’m looking into the presence of other magickal creatures at school. I already know two: my friends Hunk and Lance. However, I have suspicions of at least two more.”

“I didn’t know Lance and Hunk were like us,” he commented, scanning over the documents, tail swaying from side to side. “What types are they?”

“Lance is a merfolk hybrid. Hunk is a wizard but with a bit of golem in his bloodline.”

“Interesting. What about the two people you have suspicions of?”

“Well, my first suspect is Shiro. I don’t know what type but I know it’s likely one that can affect the winds.”

Matt’s eyes went wide as his gaze met theirs. “Shiro? Seriously? I’ve known him for years and I’ve never suspected anything.” His brows furrowed as he considered what they had told him. “Who is the other?”

“A new transfer student named Keith. He’s Shiro’s brother. Know anything about him?” they questioned him, curiosity plain upon their face.

“I didn’t know him personally or anything. I never went to his house to hang out. However, I do remember Shiro mentioning him occasionally.” Pidge remained silent, hoping he might tell them more. “A lot of the mentions of his brother revolved around him being sick and Shiro having to take care of him. It is a bit odd how his brother seems to get sick fairly often.”

Flipping the laptop around, Pidge jotted down the information into their notes. “Anything else?”

Matt frowned. “No, that’s all I know.”

“Hmm,” they mused. “Interesting. Not incredibly helpful, but interesting. Thanks for the info.”

“No problem.” He laid down, staring at the ceiling. “Guess I have to start watching Shiro more closely when we meet up.”

“You’re friends with him still?” Matt nodded. “Great, you can help me get more data.”

Frowning, he sat up. “So long as it doesn’t get in the way of our friendship or potentially break it. I rather like hanging out with him.”

“No promises.”

“Pidge,” he warns.

“Yeah, alright. I won’t ask of you anything that might damage your relationship.”

Matt sighed and appeared about to make a retort but a voice from downstairs stopped him. “Dinner is ready!”

“Coming dad,” Matt responded, standing up and walking over to the door. Pidge sighed and closed their laptop before getting up and following him to the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Constructive feedback and advice is welcome


	5. So, I’ve Got An Idea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for 1000+ hits. That's pretty awesome. I've never had that many people read a story I've written

The noise of the crowd was starting to hurt Keith’s ears. He regretted agreeing to attend the first football game of the school year. If his brother were not playing, he would’ve been content to stay home. Though, his brother did convince him to do a variety of things he’d rather not. Bored, his eyes drifted over to Pidge’s laptop, which they alternated between typing on and watching the game. It was clear what they were doing on said laptop but he couldn’t do anything about it.

Without warning, the crowd cheered loudly. A few people, including Hunk, jumped to their feet. Out of the three of them, Hunk was the only one invested in the game. Unable to tolerate the level of noise, Keith stood up and made his way down the stairs, leaving the bleachers.

Once on the ground, he scanned the area for a place likely to be quiet and isolated. Spotting the building, which houses both the bathrooms and the concession stand, he made his way over. It was quieter and, for that, he thanked whatever higher power may exist. Leaning against the side of the building, he pulled out his phone and picked up reading a random story he found online, zoning out on his surroundings yet keeping a close eye on the time.

“Hey, what’re you doing over here?” someone asked.

Drawing his gaze away from his phone, he looked over at the newcomer. “Oh, hi Lance. I’m taking a break from the crowd.”

“Ah, makes sense. It can get pretty loud, even while on the field.”

Keith crossed his arms. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be playing football?”

“I’m taking a break. Getting some water, you know? Plus, other people need some time in the spotlight,” he commented, a confident smile on his face. “So, you’re not a fan of crowds?”

“Thanks for stating the obvious,” Keith responded, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Just doing my job.” A smile pulled at the corners of Keith’s mouth. “Ah, so you do have a small sense of humour there.”

Keith scolded his features back to a neutral expression. “Don’t you have a game to get back to?”

“That you’re correct about,” Lance said, leaning down to grab a small sip from the water fountain before walking away. “See you around, mullet.”

Keith’s hands subconsciously reached up to run his fingers through the ends of his hair as he watched Lance’s retreating form. Checking his phone, he noted that the game would be over soon. He might as well head back to Pidge and Hunk. Dragging his feet, he climbed up the bleachers’ stairs and reclaimed his seat.

“Welcome back,” Pidge greeted, having taken a break from typing on their laptop.

“Thanks. I managed to get some peace and quiet for a bit.”

“That’s good. I’d leave if I could but I’m stuck since my brother is with some friends of his. Anyone who could bring me home is here.”

“Same. I’d leave if Shiro wasn’t on the team.”

They soon lapsed into silence, watching the game play out. The wind soon began to pick up and Keith zipped up his jacket, trying to keep out the chill. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Pidge looking up at the sky and muttering something to themself before opening their laptop and typing. Frowning, he gazed up as well. At first, he can’t place why Pidge was acting weird. The sky was dark and clear. That’s when the realization hit him. The wind was approaching storm-like conditions yet the sky was without a single cloud. Groaning internally, he glanced at the score for the game. Their team had fallen behind by a significant number of points and time was running short. Putting two and two together, he confirmed he was correct in his initial assumption.

A buzzer echoed through the air as the countdown clock reached zero. Multiple people groaned, annoyed with the loss. Knowing he’d need to calm Shiro down, Keith hopped up and followed the crowd down the stairs. As he left, he heard Pidge talking to Hunk.

“I’ve got it!”

Focusing on his footing, he swallowed nervously. However, that concern came second to Shiro. On the ground, he rushed over to where the team was gathering their stuff to leave. He debated going over to Shiro but decided to wait until the rest had left, allowing them more privacy.

Shiro stormed over, the first to leave the group. “Let’s go,” he growled, not bothering to slow down as he passed Keith.

Turning around on his heels, he had to jog to keep up with his brother. “Hey Shiro, can we slow down?” The other remained silent, keeping the same pace, showing no signs he heard him.

At the car, Shiro got in, slamming the door shut behind himself. Keith got in as quickly as he could. Before the car could start, Keith grabbed Shiro’s right arm, holding him back. “Shiro. You need to calm down. You are not in the right mind.”

Shiro glared at him. “Keith, let go,” he warned.

Keith met his gaze without hesitation. “If you start this car before calming down, I will get out and walk home.” His gaze wavered at Keith’s statement, likely knowing his brother well enough to know it was not a lie. Pleased, he released Shiro’s arm. “Now, take some deep breaths. Just like what you always tell me. Focus on your breathing. Patience yields focus.” Shiro lowered his arm and closed his eyes. He soon became visibly relaxed and the sound of the wind outside quieted. A few moments passed before Keith asked “better?”

“Yeah, thanks.” He smiled. “Glad you actually remember my advice.”

“If I didn’t, who would?”

Shiro laughed. “Got me there. Let’s get home now. It’s pretty late.” Starting up the car, they left the parking lot and made their way home.

\---

Keith had questioned if he should tell Shiro about Pidge throughout the entire drive. However, he didn’t know if it would be best. After all, it wouldn’t be helpful to cause him any more frustration or worry.

Arriving home, he vanished into his room with a hurried goodnight. Grabbing his phone, he went to Allura’s contact number but paused before clicking the call button. His uncertainty made him doublethink his idea but decided there would be no loss if he did. Pressing the call button, he listened to it ringing.

“Hello?” Allura asked.

“Hey Allura. Sorry for calling so late,” he apologised.

“Keith? Oh, don’t worry about it. What do you need?”

He took a deep breath, steadying his nerves. “Something happened at the game and I need your help with this plan I have...”

~∞~

“I-You do realise how risky this will be, right?” Allura asked, hesitant. “I’m not even certain it will hold for long, considering I’m half siren and I haven’t done something like this in a while.”

“I am aware but I really need you to do this for me and Shiro,” Keith pleaded.

Allura chewed on her bottom lip, uncertain.” I can’t promise anything but alright. I’ll try,” she conceded.

“Thank you. I owe you one,” he said before ending the call.

Placing her phone down, Allura fell back onto her bed, releasing a long sigh. The way Keith worded it, it seemed to be very urgent. She otherwise wouldn’t have agreed to the plan. It was risky to say the least. However, she supposed she had to.

~∞~

That Monday, chemistry crawled by, time moving at a snail’s pace, his eyes fixated on the clock for the class’s entire duration. Within his mind, he had practiced what to do and how the scene would desirably play out. With the ringing of the bell, the performance began. Standing up, Keith began putting his belongings into his bag. After a moment, his face twisted into a frown and he huffed in annoyance.

Pidge noticed. “Is something wrong?”

“Yeah, I left my literature notebook with Allura. I need it to study tonight but I don’t have time to stop by the chorus room after school,” he sighed, dejected.

Their eyes narrowed but they didn’t voice any concerns or suspicions. “My fourth class is near the chorus room-or at least, I pass it on the way. I could stop by and get it for you.”

“That would be great. If you can, meet me in the parking lot after school,” he said thankfully.

“Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you so much,” he told them before leaving to head to art. Along way, his mind was racing. The plan had to work, right?

~∞~

Towards the end of their last class, Pidge thought over Keith’s request. As they recalled the conversation, they stumbled across a gap in his logic. If he didn’t have time to get his notebook on his own, how would he have time to wait for them to retrieve it and bring it to him? Something was off. Shrugging it off, they decided it would be fine. Using magick on school grounds or in public in general carried a huge risk. The likelihood of someone doing it was low.

Leaving their class, they headed to the chorus room. Hesitant, they knocked on the door, announcing their presence, before easing it open. The room appeared deserted.

“Hello,” Pidge called out tentatively. “I’m here-I’m here to get a friend’s notebook from...Allura, I think.”

A figure moved in the back of the room. “Are you Pidge? It’s Keith’s notebook you’re here for, correct?”

Pidge turned to face the person, eyes scanning her and taking note of her physical traits, such as her pale blonde hair, so light is could be mistaken for white, and her dark complexion, a stark contrast to her hair. “Yeah, that’s right. You’re Allura?”

She nodded. “Yep, that’s me,” she answered, walking up to the front of the room. “Let me get his notebook from my bag.” Stopping in front of a chair, Allura reached into the bag sitting atop it, shifting through its contents for a moment before pulling out a notebook. Turning around, she handed it to Pidge with a friendly smile. “Here you go.”

Pidge accepted the notebook. “Thanks. I’ll be going now. See you-”

“Wait,” Allura interrupted as they had begun moving towards the door. “Um, I’m practicing a new song for chorus and I was wondering if you-uh-if you could listen to me. I could use the feedback and it’d be appreciated.” Her gaze fell to the ground, hands twisting the pink jewelled ring on one of her fingers.

“I should really be going. Keith is waiting for me,” they explained, backing towards the exit.

“Please, it won’t take long,” she pleaded.

“No, I really-” They were cut off by Allura’s soft voice filling the room. The wordless song wrapped around Pidge’s mind, filling it with a thick fog, thoughts difficult to conjure. Their mouth opened, desiring to protest, but found words to be an impossibility.

~∞~

Allura continued singing until Pidge’s eyes were glazed over, signalling they were successfully enthralled. Halting her singing, she moved closer to the hypnotised Pidge. Gently, she removed the notebook from their limp grasp, their fingers faintly clutching onto it before letting go. Placing the notebook aside on the nearby desk, Allura began speaking.

“Hello Pidge. Are you listening?” They nodded. “Good. Now, I need you to listen very closely and do as I say. Can you do that?” Once again, they nodded in confirmation. Allura’s lips curled into a smile. She brought her hand underneath their chin, forcing them to meet her gaze directly. “Lovely. What I need you to do is simple. First, you must forget about your research on Shiro being a magickal creature. Second, you need to forget about this meeting and the actions which prompted it. Got all that?” Pidge moved to nod but Allura stopped them. “No, give me your verbal confirmation.”

They parted their lips, inhaling a deep breath of the heavy, magick laced air before speaking. “Yes, I understand.” Allura raised an eyebrow and gave them a pointed look. “And I will do all that you request.”

Another soft smile appeared on her face and she moved closer until their noses brushed. “Good.” Staring into their eyes, her gaze lowered. She knew she should pull away but she hesitated, unwilling. Sighing, she straightened and backed away, pulling her hand away from their chin. “You are dismissed.”

Pidge blinked, gaze becoming more focused, confusion replacing their dazed expression. They glanced around, registering their surroundings. Then, their eyes settled on Allura.

“Thanks for listening to my song. Sorry about holding you up.” She plastered on a plastic smile.

“Uh, no problem,” they answered. “I’ll be going then.” With that, they turned away and left, shooting a single questioning glance back at Allura, seeming to have forgotten the notebook.

Once the door shut, Allura collapsed into the nearest chair, releasing a long sigh as she sank down. It would’ve been better if she’d remained silent, ignoring them, but she couldn’t stop herself. What a fool she was for getting caught up in this mess! Eyes fixed on the spot where they’d stood, she replayed the moment in her head, wishing it could have happened under much different circumstances. Lingering in the chair for a moment, holding onto the memory a little longer, she relented. Standing up, she collected her belongings, stuffing them into her bag, and exited the room. She had no desire to remain at the school any longer that day. Walking to her car, she tried to distract her thoughts to no avail, them always circling back to the moment in the chorus room. Groaning in frustration, she knew she’d never be able to look at that room in the same way ever again. Forever would that moment in time reside there. Starting the car, she called Shiro, hoping a visit to his house would be an adequate distraction.

~∞~

Knocking sounded at the door. Leaving the kitchen, Shiro headed to the door. “I’ll get it,” he called, despite knowing Keith wouldn’t bother anyway. Keith made a small noise from the couch, acknowledging he’d heard.

Folding his wings, he made certain they weren’t in plain view. Unlocking the door, he opened it. “Hi Allura. Come on in. Dinner is almost ready.”

Allura stepped forward, leaning in to place a quick kiss on his cheek. “Thanks. What’s for dinner?” she asked, walking past him into the house.

“Chicken parmesan,” he responded, closing the door and heading back to the kitchen.

She walked over to the counter window between the kitchen and living room. “Sounds good and smells delicious,” she commented. A smile crossed Shiro’s face at her remark.

“Hi Allura,” Keith greeted, diverting his attention from his book.

“Hello Keith.” Her tone turned cold as she spoke to him, causing Shiro to give them a questioning look. “By the way, while I did complete the task you asked me to do, I don’t appreciate you asking me to do it and would prefer you to not ask for something like that from me again.”

“Hopefully, I won’t have to.”

“Wait, what?” Both of them turned to Shiro. “Is there something you’re not telling me that I should know?” His eyes narrowed as they hesitated. “Keith. Allura,” he said in an authoritative tone.

“Um, remember that person I kept telling you about and how they were suspicious of you not being human?” Shiro nodded in response to Keith’s question. “Well, I may or may not have asked Allura to help since you didn’t seem concerned about it. Plus, you’ve seemed stressed lately.”

He groaned loudly. “What did you two do?” The oven timer chose that moment to go off, forcing him to turn away to deal with it.

“Allura might have used her siren powers on them,” Keith explained.

“Hey, you were the one who asked me to do it,” Allura retorted.

“You didn’t have to agree to do it.”

“Really? Because, the way you made it sound, it seemed like you wouldn’t accept a no.”

“Both of you, stop arguing!” His annoyance could no longer be contained. “It’s both your faults.” The tin holding dinner clanged as he set it on the stove a bit too harshly. Keith and Allura fell silent, neither wanting to risk angering him further. Heavy silence hung in the air as Shiro prepared them all plates and set the table. “Sit down and let’s eat,” he commanded, taking a seat himself.

They sat down and began eating. At first, there were no sounds present except for the scrapping of forks and knives against plates, the air thick with tension. As the meal progressed, the aforementioned tension eased.

Keith placed his fork down. “Thanks for dinner.” He began moving to get up, attempting to flee from the table.

“Sit back down. We’re not done yet,” Shiro said, causing Keith to freeze in his tracks. “We need to talk about how you two went behind my back and made a decision about something regarding me without speaking to me beforehand.”

Slumping back down in his chair, he sighed. “I’m sorry, but we can’t let them find out. It would cause so many problems and we’d have to move. It’d create a lot of issues for us.”

“See, the moment you add but after sorry, it shows you’re not actually sorry. While I understand your reasoning, you still should have asked me first.”

“Sorry Shiro. Next time we’ll ask,” Allura apologised, Keith nodding in agreement with her response.

“So long as it doesn’t happen again, we’re fine,” he replied.

“We promise,” they said in near unison.

The corners of Shiro’s mouth twitched into a smile. “Alright. Now let’s go clean up dinner.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Constructive criticism and feedback is always appreciated


	6. Truth or Dare Goes Horribly Wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies that this is being posted later than usual. I have been preoccupied with studying for exams and so have been a tad scatterbrained as of late

Keith stared at his classwork. He couldn’t explain it but this week, ever since Monday, he’d felt...numb. Maybe it was guilt but, whatever the reason, it left him unable to focus on school and he’d hardly drawn anything that week, unusual for him. Due to those factors, school work became difficult. Unable to comprehend the work, he placed down his pencil and looked at the clock.

“Having trouble as well?” Lance asked. Mutely, Keith nodded. “Yeah, I’m in the same boat. Pidge and Hunk, however, are another story.” Both of them glanced over at the other two.

Hunk looked over at them, having heard Lance. “You two need help?” At his question, Pidge turned to them as well.

“That’d be nice. However, class is going to end in two minutes,” Lance replied.

“If you haven’t finished your classwork, it’s homework,” Ms. Pride announced as students began packing up.

“We could go to someone’s house tomorrow and finish,” Hunk suggested. “Though, my house is unavailable.”

“Good idea,” Lance commented. “My house is also unavailable due to my sister’s birthday party.”

Pidge nodded. “Yeah, my house is off too. My brother has friends visiting tomorrow.”

Lance looked over at Keith, who had remained silent. “What about you?”

He blinked, surprised they were bothering to ask him. He’d assumed he wasn’t included. “Oh, I-uh-I’m pretty sure my house will work.”

“Great! Can we get your phone number and address?” Lance asked, passing him a piece of paper. Keith scribbled down both pieces of information and handed the paper back just as the bell rang. “Thanks! I’ll make a group chat with all of us and send the address there.” They all grabbed their belongings and parted ways.

\---

After school ended, Keith met up with Shiro in the parking lot and they got into the car, heading home.

“Hey Shiro,” Keith began.

“Yes?” he responded.

“Some kids from my chemistry class want to come over to our house tomorrow to work on an assignment. Is that okay?”

A faint smile appeared on Shiro’s face. “That’s fine. Just don’t destroy the house while I’m with my friends.”

“Okay,” he concluded, hoping the conversation would end there.

“So, are these friends of yours? When will they be arriving? Will I be able to meet them?”

Of course he won’t let the conversation stop. “Kind of, I don’t know, and it depends,” he answered.

His smile faded. “Kind of? What does that mean?”

“I mean, they include me in conversations and are friendly but I don’t really know them. I don’t know if I consider them friends,” he explained.

“Hmm, alright.” With that, they lapsed into silence for the rest of the drive.

~∞~

Once home, Lance retrieved the piece of paper with Keith’s information from his pocket. Opening his texting app, he added Keith to his contacts, staring at the name Keith had given his account for a moment, and then created a new group chat.

 _Chat Participants:_  
_RiddleMaster (RM), MagickChef (MC), & FireBird (FB)_

 _[Image Sent]_  
_Hi everyone. Here is Keith’s address_

_RM: thanks_

_MC: Thank you_

_FB: What time are you all going to come over?_

_What time works for you_

_FB: Any time after 10am and before 5pm works for me._

_RM: how about 1pm?_

_Works for me_

_MC: Works for me as well_

_FB: Alright._

_RM: see you tomorrow_

_See you_

Lance closed the app and put his phone on his bedside table. Leaving his room, he made his way to the kitchen, where his mom was preparing dinner and blasting music, not that he minded. Entering, he called out loudly, “hi mama! I’m home!”

By some miracle, she heard him over the music. Turning down the music, she turned around and wrapped him in a tight hug. “Welcome home! How was your day at school?”

“It was good,” he replied. “By the way, may I go over to a friend’s house tomorrow to work on a school assignment?”

“Which friend?”

“A new one from chemistry. Pidge and Hunk are going with me.”

“Hmm, I don’t know. I haven’t ever met them.”

“Please mama, we really need to work on this assignment.” Seeing his mom’s continued hesitance, he added “If you let me go, I’ll bring him to meet you afterwards, when we’ve finished working.”

Sighing, she relented. “Oh alright. I’ll hold you to that thought.”

“Thank you, mama.” He happily planted a kiss on her cheek before heading back to his room.

~∞~

Saturday morning, Keith awoke to Shiro knocking on his door. “Get up!”

Groaning, he stared at his ceiling. “It’s Saturday. Why are you waking me up so early?”

The door opened. “Aren’t your friends coming over at 1 o’clock? We need to clean up the house and make it presentable before they get here.” Keith rolled over and pulled the covers over his head, sleep tugging at his mind. Abruptly, Shiro tore the blankets away.

“Ugh, give me a minute.”

“No, I know if I do, you’ll end up going back to sleep.”

“Fine,” he grumbled. He sat up and looked over at his brother. “There, I’m up.”

Shiro rolled his eyes and gave him an exasperated expression. “Actually get out of bed. Feet on the ground, standing up, and everything.” Huffing, he complied, unwilling to fight anymore, knowing he wouldn’t give up. “Thank you,” he said, turning away and heading out the door. “I left breakfast for you on the counter. Once you finish eating, start helping me clean everything.”

“Yes dad,” he replied. Shiro glared but chose to say nothing and leave instead.

~∞~

Lance pulled up to Pidge’s house and sent them a text, telling them he’d arrived. A few minutes later, the door swung open and Pidge got into the car.

“Thanks for picking me up,” they told him, slamming the car door shut behind them.

“No problem,” he responded as he pulled the car out the driveway. “Matt preoccupied with his friends?”

“Kind of. He doesn’t want to leave in case his friends arrive while he’s gone.”

“Ah, that sounds very annoying.”

“Tell me about it,” they sighed. “How far is Keith’s house, by the way?”

Lance glanced down at his phone, reading the gps. “It says about eight minutes, so not too far away.” They fell silent for a moment. “So, are you going to use this visit to research Keith and Shiro?”

Pidge blinked and gave him a puzzled look. “Research Keith, yes. But where did you get Shiro from? I’ve no reason to do any sort of research on him yet.”

Distracted, Lance slammed on the brakes as they approached a red light. With the car stopped, he regarded them with wide eyes. “But you started research on Shiro long before Keith. You’ve been studying him for two years.”

They tilted their head. “No, I haven’t. Why would you even think that?”

“Pidge, are you okay?” He pressed the back of his hand to their forehead. “You’re not sick, right? You’d never forget something like that. Come to think of it, you’ve been acting odd all week,” he rambled.

Reeling back, they slapped his hand away. “I’m fine. I’m not sick. It’s you whose acting weird.”

Frowning, Lance moved his attention back to the road and focused on getting them both to Keith’s house, unnerved by Pidge’s words.

\---

Pulling up to Keith’s house, Lance noted that absence of Hunk’s car. Parking the car, he got out and went to trunk to get his school bag. Walking together, Pidge and Lance approached the door and knocked. When the door failed to open after a few moments, he knocked again, impatient.

A heartbeat later, Keith threw open the door. “Come on in,” he greeted, moving aside. They did as such, Lance taking in the house’s internal appearance. Keith brought them to the living room and gestured for them to sit on the couch. “We’ll be working in here,” he explained.

“Nice,” Lance commented. Sitting down, he leaned back and made himself comfortable. “Thanks for inviting us over and letting us do our chem work here.”

Opening his mouth to respond, a newcomer interrupted Keith. “Are these your friends, Keith?” Shiro inquired, surveying the pair. “Oh, hi Lance. I didn’t realise you two know each other.”

“Hey Shiro. How’s life going?” Lance greeted with a grin.

“It’s decent. What about you?”

“Yeah, it’s not bad.”

Pidge coughed, intercepting their conversation. “Hello, I’m Pidge,” they introduced themself with a wave.

“Hi Pidge. Nice to meet you,” he replied. “So, how did you two meet Keith?”

“We have chemistry together,” Lance answered. At his statement, Pidge laughed. “What?”

“Nothing. Sorry, it’s just how you worded that,” they responded, trying to shove down their laughter. Blood rushed to his face as Lance realised what they meant.

“Anyways,” Shiro interjected, “you’ll be working on chemistry homework, I assume?” They all nodded. “Well, I’ll be leaving soon to spend time with friends of mine, so try not to destroy the house or anything.”

“No promises,” Lance jested.

Shiro shook his head as he turned away, moving towards the door. Opening the door, he paused and they heard him greet someone. “Oh, hello.” None of them could make out the stranger’s response. “Keith, you have another guest!”

Sighing, Keith walked over to the door and greeted the person. He lead them to the living room, where the stranger revealed themself to be Hunk.

“Hey, sorry that I’m a bit late,” he greeted.

“No worries. We hadn’t even started yet,” Pidge replied.

“Alright, since everyone is here, we should get started,” Keith announced, a pointed side glance sent towards his brother.

“Bye guys,” Shiro called. “Don’t burn the house down!”

“We will,” Lance assured, laughing when Shiro flipped him off before the door slammed shut.

\---

They worked independently, occasionally discussing a question as a group to make sure everyone understood. Mainly, Keith and Lance asked the questions while Pidge and Hunk provided answers.

Puzzling over one question, Lance jotted down an answer. As he continued regarding the question, his confidence in his answer faltered. Side glancing Keith, he tapped his pencil against his cheek, thinking. “Hey, what did you get for number twenty?” he questioned, directed at no one in particular.

Keith’s eyes flickered towards him. “Aluminium silicate?” Lance nodded. “I got Al four parentheses SiO four parentheses three. Why? What did you get?”

“What? I got Al two SiO three,” he exclaimed. “Where did you get SiO four from?”

Keith averted his gaze to his phone. “I couldn’t remember the formula for silicate so I looked it up on my phone and it said that the most common form of silicate is SiO four. Since I didn’t know what form of silicate to use, I figured the most common form would work.” Grabbing his phone, he showed the open webpage to Lance. “See.”

“Dude, our teacher gave us a polyatomic sheet earlier in the unit. You didn’t need to google it,” Lance explained.

His eyes fell to the ground as he took his phone away. “Oh, I forgot about that,” he admitted, mouth falling into a frown. “Regardless, you still did it wrong as well.”

“What did I mess up on?” Lance challenged.

Keith hold up his paper and pointed at his answer. “You forgot the parentheses. With polyatomics, if you have more than one, you have to surround it in parentheses. The way you have it written, you have three oxygen atoms, not three of the whole polyatomic.”

“Oh,” he said, now uncomfortable under Keith’s gaze. “I’d forgotten that you needed those. Well, now we can both fix our answers.” Erasing his previous answer, he started rewriting it.

Meanwhile, Keith began searching through his pile of chemistry papers, looking for his polyatomic sheet. Lance sneaked several subtle glances at him, watching how his mouth curved into a subtle pout as he looked for a single sheet of paper among many. After a couple minutes of shuffling papers around, he couldn’t find it. Giving up, he slid some of the papers off the table, scattering them across the floor. Leaning back, he huffed.

Out of sympathy, Lance found his sheet and handed it to him. Surprise lit up Keith’s gaze as he casted the offered paper a glance. Accepting it, he mumbled a soft thanks. Smiling, Lance refocused on his work, though continuing to check on Keith.

“It’s SiO three, not just SiO,” Keith advised after a couple moments of silence, not bothering to spare Lance a single glance as he spoke.

Blinking, Lance gawked at him. “Huh?”

“On question twenty, you put SiO. It’s actually SiO three. Silicate has three oxygen atoms,” he responded, still staring at the paper.

“Oh uh, thanks,” he replied, looking back at the aforementioned question. Seeing Keith had been right, he changed his answer to the correct one.

\---

Sometime after they’d finished their work, the group took to watching tv. It took a while to decide what to watch, all of them having separate interests. Keith voted for a historical mysteries show. Hunk want to watch a cooking show. Lance pointed out a football match. Pidge suggested some weird life hack show. After a lot of argument, Keith and Lance both conceded to Pidge, Hunk got no choice since the three of them outnumbered him. That’s how they ended up learning various tips and tricks to beat the system and make their lives more convenient.

At the next commercial break, Pidge stood up and stretched. “I’m hungry. Hey Keith, can I get some food?”

He nodded, not looking up from something on his phone. “Yeah, don’t go into the cabinet above the stove though.”

“And why is that? Got some to hide?” they teased.

“I-uh, it’s Shiro’s private stash that I’m not supposed to know about,” he answered, giving them a weak smile.

“Oh, okay.” They went into the kitchen and began looking around, evidenced by the sounds of cabinets opening and closing.

A moment later, Keith stood up and left the room. This allowed Lance to talk to Hunk in private.

“Hey Hunk,” he started.

“Yes?”

“Have you noticed anything off about Pidge lately?”

Hunk frowned. “Not really, though most of our conversations have been limited to school recently. Why do you ask?”

“Earlier, when I was driving Pidge and myself over here, I asked them about their research and Keith and Shiro and they acted like I was insane for suggesting they even had a reason to research Shiro. Yet, they remembered being suspicious of Keith,” he explained.

“But not Shiro?” Lance nodded. “That is odd,” he agreed. “Should we ask them about it?”

“If you want to. I won’t because they’ll find it suspicious after our conversation in the car.”

“Okay, I’ll try to ask them.”

“Ask who what?” Pidge inquired, entering the room with a bowl of popcorn.

“Oh, um,” Hunk shot Lance a panicked look. “I wanted to ask you about your research on Shiro and Keith,” he said, deciding to not bother with hiding it.

“You too? Gods, I’m not researching Shiro. I don’t know what gave either of you the impression that I am,” they complained, shoving a handful of popcorn into their mouth.

Hunk did a double take. “But I thought you thought Shiro was a hybrid.”

“Well, I don’t. At the moment, I only suspect Keith,” they told them.

“What about me?” Keith entered the room and plopped down onto the couch.

Lance and Hunk’s eyes went wide but Pidge replied calmly, “just saying how lucky it is that you have popcorn.”

He regarded them with disbelief but chose not to press the matter or say anything else. “Alright. Well, what should we watch next?” They followed his gaze to the tv, where the end credits of the show rolled by.

“Actually, I’m bored with tv,” Lance stated, relaxing into the cushion of the couch.

“Yeah, I’m with Lance,” Hunk agreed.

“Let’s play truth or dare then,” Pidge suggested. “We can get to know each other better!”

Keith shrugged. “I guess that’s okay with me.” Hunk and Lance agreed.

“We should sit on the floor in a circle for convenience,” they instructed. Everyone complying, they formed a circle on the ground between the table and the tv. “I’ll go first.” Their gold eyes scanned the group. “Lance, truth or dare?”

“Dare,” he answered with no hesitation.

Pidge thought about their reply for a moment. “Order me a pizza.”

Lance blinked. “What?”

“You heard me. Order me a pizza.”

“Well, okay then. What type?”

“Cheese.”

“Boring,” Lance joked, grabbing his phone. He called the pizza place and placed the order. Hanging up, he discarded his phone. “They said it will take about forty-five minutes.”

“Awesome. Your turn to ask someone.”

“Alright.” His gaze switched between Hunk and Keith for a bit before settling. “Keith, truth or dare?”

“Truth, I guess,” he responded.

“Come on, where is your sense of fun?” Lance complained. “So, um, what’s your favourite activity?”

Keith pursed his lips as he thought about his answer. “It’s a tie between reading and drawing. Hunk, truth or dare?”

“Dare!”

“Uh, how about I dare you to share one thing that you’ve never told anyone before.”

Hunk puzzled on the request. “I don’t know. I mean, I’m pretty much an open book. I guess one thing would be that I’m really interested in magickal creatures. I don’t tell that to many people.” He shrugged. “Anyway, truth or dare, Lance?”

“I’ll go with truth this time,” Lance told him.

“Any new crushes this semester?” Hunk asked.

His cheek grew warm as a blush spread across them. “Perhaps.”

“Who is it?” Pidge inquired.

“Ah, I’ve already answered the question so I don’t have to answer that one,” he replied with a smirk. “Pidge, truth or dare?”

“Dare. I’m not a coward.”

“Good. I dare you to let me use your laptop for the next three minutes.”

Pidge blanched at the dare but complied, handing him the laptop. “Don’t break it.”

“Please, have faith in me.” Opening the laptop, he began skimming through documents, locating the ones on Shiro and Keith. Clicking on Shiro’s, he scrolled through it, reading all he could. About halfway, Pidge told him his time was up. Dejected, he closed the document and returned the laptop to them.

“Guess it’s my turn now,” they mused, sliding their gaze towards Keith. “Truth or dare, Keith?”

“Truth please,” he answered.

“You and Shiro are siblings, correct?” Keith nodded. “So, why do you not look like it?”

“Oh, yeah, that. I was adopted,” he said, eyes dropping to the ground.

“Is that why you started attending Altea high this year when Shiro has already been there since he started high school?” Hunk questioned.

“Uh, no. I was adopted by the Shirogane’s when I was eleven.” His eyes remained determinedly fixed on the ground, refusing to meet any of their gazes, as he spoke.

“So, then why-”

Keith cut them off before Pidge could finish the question. “Let’s just continue with the game, alright?” he proposed, hands gripping the carpet. “Hunk, truth or dare?”

“Oh, truth,” he said.

“Do you enjoy cooking and, if you do, what’s your favourite thing to make?”

“I do enjoy cooking. My favourite food to make would probably be cookies,” he responded. “Pidge, truth or dare?”

“Dare.” Hunk leaned over and whispered something into their ear, at which a mischievous grin crossed their face. Hunk backing up, Pidge stood up and walked the outside of the circle before stopping behind Lance. In one quick motion, they dumped the entire bowl of popcorn onto Lance, showering him in the food. Pidge, Hunk, and Keith burst out laughing at Lance’s face of shock and disgust.

“Come on, that was rude,” he huffed, crossing his arms.

Keith, his hand covering his mute laughing, collected himself before the others. “You must admit, it is a bit funny.”

“I don’t have to admit anything.”

Hunk and Pidge soon got their laughter under control and calmed down. “My turn,” Pidge stated. “Keith, truth or dare?”

“Truth,” he answered, not willing to say dare.

“Why did you start going to Altea High this semester when Shiro has been going for his entire high school career and you were adopted four years ago?” they inquired.

“Oh, that.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “It-it’s because of something that happened back in fifth grade. I stopped going and they never forced me to go back. Shiro convinced me to start again.”

“What happened in fifth grade?” they pressed.

“I-I already answered the question,” he replied, regarding the carpet with feigned interest. “Lance, truth or dare?”

“Truth,” he answered.

“What’s your favourite colour?”

Lance questioned the question, but it didn’t take long to figure out why he’d gone for a simple question. “Blue, the best colour,” he responded. “Hunk, truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

“I dare you to bake me some cookies sometime this weekend,” Lance said, going for a light-hearted dare.

“I’ll do that tomorrow and get them to you either tomorrow or Monday,” Hunk assured. “Pidge, truth or dare?”

“Truth,” they answered.

“Have you experienced anything weird this week?” Pidge squinted and Keith’s head shot up at the question, neither escaping Lance’s observation.

“No, I have not,” they claimed. “Keith, truth or dare?”

Having collected himself back to a neutral appearance, Keith sighed. He seemed torn between the two options, knowing what question truth would entail and not willing to pick dare. “Truth,” he conceded after a long silent debate.

“What happened in fifth grade that made you drop out of school until now?” Pidge queried, to no one’s surprise.

Keith’s dark purple eyes swirled with a mix of emotions. Lance could make out the faint watering of his eyes. Folding his arms, he refused to look at any of them. “That’s-that’s a long story.” His voice audibly shook and developed a brittleness that Lance never expected from it.

“We have time,” Pidge pursued, relentless in their desire for information. “You chose truth so you have to answer.”

“Pidge, he doesn’t if it’s too personal,” Hunk countered.

“Yeah, this is a game. No need to pressure anyone to do anything,” Lance added, noting how Keith’s eyes closed, hands curled into fists, and he took deep breaths.

“But he chose truth! What I was going to ask wasn’t even a surprise!” they shot back, eyes flashing.

Keith shot to his feet, eyes flying open, filled with fire, hands curled so tightly the skin turned white. “There is nothing I have to tell you! You are not my friends! Get out!” he ordered. Whipping around, he stormed out of the living room and up the stairs, not staying to see if they complied with his demand. A door slammed shut, echoing through the house.

The trio sat in silence, frozen where they sat. The air carried a lingering aura of rage and annoyance. Slowly pulling themselves from their stupor, they looked around at each other. After a few minutes, the weight of all that occurred hit them and Lance turned on Pidge, azure blue eyes cold and harsh.

“Are you happy now? Is this what you wanted to happen? He hates us,” he growled. “He even said we aren’t his friends!”

“How would I have known he’d blow up at us?” they argued.

“Maybe if you’d actually paid attention instead of getting wrapped up in your own thirst for knowledge. Perhaps then you would’ve known,” he contended, voice rising as he spoke.

“Guys, we should be quiet,” Hunk informed them. “We don’t want him to get more agitated with us.”

“You’re right,” Pidge said, glancing at the ground, seeming to shrink.

“Yeah sorry,” Lance responded, calming down a bit. “So, what are we going to do now?”

“Leave like he told us to,” Hunk suggested.

“But we should at try to apologise before leaving. I don’t want him to continue hating us,” Lance contradicted.

“I agree with Lance,” Pidge announced. “We should apologise. Though, we might want to let him cool off before doing so.”

“Okay. What do we do while waiting?” Hunk asked.

“Clean up our mess,” Lance advised.

\---

Cleaning up took longer than expected, though that was for the best as it gave Keith more time to calm down after the earlier events. Upon finishing, they all agreed the best time to apologise would be now. Deciding Lance would lead the way, they went upstairs. Keith’s room proved easy to locate, considering there was one closed door.

Tentative, Lance knocked. “Hey Keith?” His response consisted of quiet shuffling. “Keith, we are here to apologise for pressuring you to talk about something you clearly are uncomfortable discussing.” He shot Pidge and Hunk a sharp look.

“Yeah, I’m so sorry,” Pidge apologised. “I kind of forgot about feelings and emotions back there.”

“We’re truly sorry,” Hunk added.

Yet, despite their words, a verbal response alluded them. Frowning, Lance knocked again. “Can you come out now, please? Or at least say something?”

“Go-go away,” Keith replied from behind the door, voice broken and empty.

Lance sighed, placing his palm on the door. “Alright, see you Monday then. Have a good rest of your weekend,” he appeased. Peeling his hand away from the door, he turned around, eyes downcast, a heavy and numb feeling settling in his chest. His body locked on autopilot, not registering his surroundings anymore.

~∞~

In his room, Keith sat on his bed, knees pulled up to his chest, wings draped on the bed behind him. Outside, he heard hushed whispers and muffled footsteps. Tuning them out, he continued staring at the dark red walls, trying to avoid tears escaping down his cheeks. He despised his own weakness when it came to that particular topic. He hated that he’d yelled at them. It wasn’t their fault. If anything, the fault belonged to him. He should’ve known better.

\---

Sometime later, long after the house filled with silence, the doorbell rang, bringing said silence to a screeching halt. Dragged back to reality, Keith’s head twisted towards the door. In a foggy haze, he lurched to his feet. He had enough awareness to wrap a large blanket around himself, concealing his wings.

Stumbling all the way to the door, nearly tripping down the stairs at one point, he reached the door. Pushing it open, surprise struck him.

“Good evening. You ordered a small cheese pizza?” the delivery person questioned.

It took a moment for the words to process and longer for him to understand the entire situation. Earlier, during truth or dare, Lance ordered Pidge a cheese pizza. Hadn’t he said it would take forty-five minutes? Did all of that happen in such a short amount of time?

“Um, sir?”

Keith blinked. “Sorry, I got distracted,” he mumbled, awkward in the situation presented to him. “Yes, I did order that.”

“Alright, sign here, please.” A pen and receipt were handed to him. Signing the receipt as requested, Keith gave both back. “Thank you. Here is your pizza. Have a good evening, sir.”

Grabbing the pizza, Keith muttered a faint reply. “You too.”

Closing the door, he set the pizza box onto the table and settled down on the couch. Resuming the same position he’d held back in his room, he took a slice of pizza and turned on the tv, content for the moment.

\---

The front door opened and closed. “I’m ba-” Shiro broke off his greeting as he entered the living room. His eyes focused on Keith, who paused in the middle of second slice of pizza, mouth open. “Keith,” Shiro warned.

Placing the slice in the box, Keith gave his brother a look of pure innocence. “Yes, Shiro?”

“Don’t even try that with,” he growled. “You’re lactose intolerant! You shouldn’t be eating pizza!”

“Screw it. I do what I want,” Keith asserted, reaching for his previously discarded slice of pizza.

“Oh, no you don’t.” Shiro careened forward, grabbing his arm, yanking him off the couch. Keith yelped, free arm flailing. “No more pizza for you.” He sighed as he continued dragging Keith to his room. “I leave for three hours and come back to this. You’re a disaster without me around to keep tabs on you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Constructive criticism and feedback are welcome


	7. Look What Pidge (Stole) Found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, my updating schedule has been reviewed and I've decided on a new one for the next two or so months. I will continue to upload on Wednesdays (consistency); however, I will alter my schedule to upload the next chapter the following Wednesday after I complete writing a chapter

A loud ringing filled the room.

Groaning, Lance rolled out of bed and grabbed his phone off the bedside table.

“Hello?”

“Lance, get up and drag your ass over here. I’ve found something that I need to talk to you and Hunk about.”

Rubbing his eyes, he sighed. “Pidge, it’s eight in the morning on Sunday.”

“So? Hurry up and get moving,” Pidge demanded.

“Who even wakes up this early on Sunday?”

“Um, I do.”

Putting his fingers to his temple, he massaged the skin there. “Fine. I’m going.”

“Good.” With that, Pidge hung up.

For another minute, Lance sat on the floor, unwilling to get up. However, he knew Pidge would reprimand him if he took too long, so, against his will, he dragged himself up off the floor and started getting ready.

Rushing around his room, he threw on his favourite shirt–white with blue sleeves–and a pair of jeans. He ran a comb through his messy brown hair and brushed his teeth. Sprinting out of his room and down the stairs, he grabbed his car keys off the dinner table and headed for the door, not bothering to even consider stopping to eat breakfast.

“I’ll be back in a bit,” he called to his mom as he flew past her out the door.

“Okay, be safe,” she shouted after him.

He didn’t bother to respond before the door slammed close. Hopping into his blue jeep, he started the car and drove off.

~∞~

After calling Lance, Pidge had called Hunk to give him the same request. Thankfully, he always woke up early on the weekend to help his moms with the bakery so the conversation was a lot more easy-going and Hunk had agreed to come over as soon as he could.

After hanging up with Hunk, they redirected their attention to the glass bottle in front of them. It was filled to the brim with a strange glowing liquid that change from yellow to red as it moved down in the bottle. Despite their curiosity, they declined tasting it since they didn’t know if it would have any undesirable effects yet. That, of course, was for Hunk and Lance to figure out for them. It was nice, having one human friend and one hybrid friend, which allowed them to test how a substance affected both humans and magickal creatures. All the better for science.

Unscrewing the cap, they leaned over and sniffed the strange liquid, dying to know what it at least smelled like. As soon as the scent hit their nose, they recoiled and slammed the lid down. Coughing as the smell assaulted their senses, they screwed the lid shut and tossed it away, where it bounced on the bed as it landed. They studied the bottle, wondering how something that aesthetically pleasing to look at could smell that horrible.

Getting an idea, they jumped up off the bed and dashed to their bedroom door, lion tail grabbing hold of the bottle behind them. Throwing open the door, they entered the hallway and began making their way to Matt’s room.

“Matt, open up,” Pidge demanded, banging on his door. “I need to ask you something!”

The door swung open and Matt stood in the doorway, wheat blond hair a messy despite otherwise looking as if he were about to leave. “Geez Pidgeon, keep it down,” he suggested, scratching the back of his head. “Dad isn’t as young as he used to be and values his sleep, ‘specially on weekends when he can sleep in.”

Pidge’s wings folded more tightly against their back as their tail dropped closer to the floor. “Whoops,” they said, lowering their voice. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

“Don’t apologise to me,” Matt replied. “Anyway, what’s got you so hyped up?” He leaned against his door frame, arms crossed over his chest as he regarded his younger sibling.

Their golden eyes lit back up. “Yeah, that. Well, I found a strange liquid substance and was wondering if you knew what it was or what does.” Lifting their tail up, they shoved the bottle into his face. “So, know anything?”

Grabbing the bottle out of their grip, Matt held it up and examined it. “Where did you find this?”

“Oh, uh, around,” they answered.

Giving them a disbelieving look, he sighed and handed the bottle back to them. “It’s something made with magick, not doubt about it. However, I’ve never seen something like this before. Usually, the bottles are marked even if the box is not, but this one has no label whatsoever. It both makes it easier and more difficult to identify.”

“How so?”

“Well, it would be odd to find an unlabelled bottle because most are required to be marked with at least a company name in case something happens. That means the company who makes this is trusted by the government regulators, a rarity. On the other hand, the lack of a label means it will be difficult to single out alongside similar unmarked bottles,” he explained.

“Ah, that makes sense,” they commented. Before the conversation could continue, the doorbell interrupted them. “I’ll get it!” Whirling around and sprinting for the stairs, their tail yanked the bottle out of Matt’s hands as they dashed off. Behind them, Matt chuckled and shook his head but they choose to ignore him.

Pidge’s eagle wings flapped as they literally flew down the stairs, too impatient to bother with the slow speed of descending the stairs in a safer method. Not even taking the time to land, they threw open the door–sparing a single second to make certain it was who they thought it was.

“Gods, what took you so long,” they complained. Pulling Lance and Hunk inside, they slammed the door shut, wincing at the noise as they remembered Matt’s comment about their father.

“Sorry,” Hunk apologised.

Meanwhile, Lance didn’t bother to apologise. “You chose to call at eight in the morning,” he huffed.

“Oh, pardon me for interrupting your beauty sleep,” Pidge fired back as they landed. “I found something yesterday that both of you should see. Come on, let’s go up to my room.” Starting up the stairs, they led their friends to their room. Once in their room, they showed them both the bottle.

“Woah, what is that?” Hunk asked as he and Lance examined the liquid within the container.

“I was kind of hoping one of you might know,” they admitted.

“Where did you get this?” Lance wondered.

Pidge shrugged. “I found it in Keith’s kitchen yesterday.”

“You stole it from Keith?” Hunk gasped, backing away a step.

“Well, stole is one way to describe it,” they answered. “It was in the cabinet he told me not to look in. Of course, after he told me not to, I had to and found a couple other bottles like this. There were some other things but this one captured my attention, so I took one of the bottles.”

“So, what are you planning to do with it?” Hunk questioned.

“That’s where you two come in. I need to know what it tastes like and if it has any side effects. Obviously, I can’t try it myself because if it causes me to be inhibited, I can’t write down my notes. Therefore, I need people to test it on. You two are convenient because Hunk’s a human and Lance is a hybrid. I’ll learn how this substance affects each group in a general sense,” they explained.

“Okay,” Lance replied. He grabbed the bottle and unscrewed the cap.

“Wait, seriously?” Hunk asked. “You’re going to drink it without knowing what it is?”

Lance shrugged. “Why not? The sooner I drink this, the sooner Pidge can get information, the sooner I can go home and get some more sleep.” Bringing it to his lips, he took a small sip that turned into more as he grew a liking to its taste.

Before he could continuing drinking all of it, Pidge stopped him, yanking the bottle away from him. Examining the remaining liquid, they noted Lance had drunk about a quarter of it, leaving plenty enough for Hunk and to later research. Handing it to Hunk, they grinned. “Alright, your turn,” they told him.

Hunk gave them a worried look but took the bottle regardless. “If something bad happens to me, I blame you,” he informed them as he brought the bottle to his mouth and took a sip. While his initial reaction was similar to Lance’s, Hunk stopped himself before he could drink too much and handed it back to Pidge.

Pidge closed the bottle and set it aside. Grabbing their laptop, they opened a blank document and turned to their friends. “So, describe its taste first,” they ordered, fingers positioned on the keyboard, ready to start typing as they talked.

“Well, it’s cold, like I’m swallowing an ice cube after it’s melted in my mouth,” Hunk provided. “Like, it’s soothing and sweet, but also has a sort of underlying bitter taste. If that makes sense at all.”

Shrugging, Pidge typed up his response. “I get it.” After they finished with Hunk’s answer, they turned to Lance, only to see the hybrid had sunk to the floor with his back propped up against the wall, eyes glazed over and staring off into nothing. “Uh, Lance?”

At his lack of a reply, Hunk crouched down next to his friend and nudged him. “Hey, bud? Are you okay?”

Lance blinked as his body shifted to the side due to Hunk’s nudge. He shook his head and began to blink rapidly. “What–what was the question again?” he asked, words running together somewhat.

Noting his response, Pidge marked it down on their computer. “We were wondering what you thought of that weird liquid’s taste.”

“Oh, yeah, right.” Even though he was looking at Pidge, his attention continuously shifted elsewhere in the room, redirected back to Pidge and then wandering again. “It’s refreshing, like I’ve been in the desert for days without water. It’s sweet like honey and addicting.” His gaze landed on the bedside table where Pidge had put the half full bottle. “Can I–can I have some more?”

Pidge’s tail lashed out and wrapped around the bottle, pulling it over to them. “No,” Pidge stated. “I don’t think it is safe to drink more than you have.”

“But Pidge,” Lance protested, reaching out towards them. “Please.”

“No,” they growled, moving the bottle out of his line of sight. He began pouting as soon as the bottle vanished behind their back. “Anyway, tell me how you feel, mentally and physically.”

“I feel like I need more,” Lance told them, leaning his head back against the wall. “If I stand up, I get overwhelmed with dizziness and the world starts spinning. That’s why I had to sit down. Also, my body feels a bit numb and tingly; that’s the best way to explain it.”

“Noted,” Pidge remarked, typing up his statement. “Alright, Hunk, what about you?”

Hunk glanced down at Lance and frowned as he looked back over at Pidge. “I don’t feel much of anything. Though, I think my sense of touch has been weakened. Things feel somewhat numb and I don’t think I could tell what something is through touch alone. Also, I do feel a bit dizzy, but nothing serious.”

“How interesting,” they commented. “While Lance is being more affected, you both still seem to be having similar reactions as far as I can tell.” They finished typing everything and saved the document. “Hey Hunk, do you think you could take this home and do some testing on it? You know, figure out what it is and what it’s supposed to be used for?” Their tail moved so Hunk could see the bottle.

“Oh, sure,” Hunk answered. “I’m sure I can find something.”

“Great. Thanks.” Pidge handed the bottle over to him and he accepted it. “Get back to me as soon as you can.”

“Yeah, got it,” Hunk told them.

As soon as Hunk took the bottle, Lance’s eyes fixated on him, pupils dilated to the point of almost swallowing the vibrant blue of his eyes. “Hey Hunk, do you think I could have some of that?”

Hunk’s grip on the bottle tightened. “No, I don’t trust this stuff,” he stated.

“Make sure you don’t let him get any more,” Pidge instructed. “We don’t need to find out what happens if he does get more.”

“Yeah, I know, Pidge,” Hunk replied. “Well, I’m going back home.” He opened the door and started down the hallway. “Don’t let him drive home until he is acting normal.”

“Wait, what?” Pidge shot off their bed and into the hallway. “You’re going to leave me with babysitting him?”

Hunk shrugged. “You’ll manage.” With that, he exited the house, leaving the two of them behind.

Pidge looked back at Lance and sighed before going back into their room. “This will be a long day,” they mumbled.


	8. What do You Value Most?

Keith was nervous and currently taking it out on the asphalt track. Sprinting around the track, his worries couldn’t catch up to him. Neither could Shiro. At least, not without using his wind abilities.

Breezing past other students, he carried only the weight of air, everything else left behind in the dust. Every third lap of running, he slowed to a jog for one lap before repeating the process. When he slowed, Shiro tried to catch up but Keith never let him. Darting away whenever he neared, they played a form of cat and mouse.

After about five sets, he permitted Shiro to jog alongside him; though, they did so in silence. Once his breathing evened out, Shiro began pestering him.

“So, can I ask what’s bothering you now?” he asked.

Keith released a long breath. “I’m nervous,” he answered. Now that he’d dropped to a walk, his skin became constricting. His muscles twitched with the urge to move, willing him to pick up the pace. Back itching, he longed to release his wings, but fought back the temptation.

“About what?” Shiro pressed.

“On Saturday, I blew up on Pidge, Lance, and Hunk. I’m worried they might start ignoring me,” he elaborated.

Shiro nodded, understanding his worries. “If you apologise and tell them you didn’t mean for it to happen and they don’t accept it, then you’re better off without them. Though I don’t know the other two all that well, I do know Lance and he isn’t the type to do that. I think you have nothing to worry about.”

“Okay,” he replied, thinking over his advice. “I’m going to run some more.”

“Alright. Don’t tire yourself out though,” Shiro called after him.

\---

Keith started to regret his life choices as he slid into his seat in chemistry. Exhaustion seeped under his skin and the temptation to sleep increased each minute, his eyelids sliding closed.

“Hey Keith!”

His eyes shot open at the enthusiastic voice. Blinking away the haze of sleep, he looked up at him. “Hi Lance,” he mumbled, much quieter than the other.

“I have a favour I need to ask of you,” he began, causing Keith to raise a questioning brow. “Remember how I went to your house Saturday? Well, my mom may have let me go because I promised she could meet you afterwards. After what happened, I forgot and it definitely wasn’t the time for something like that. Anyways, I sort of need you to come over to my house sometime this week, please. Otherwise, I’ll get in trouble,” Lance rambled, words running together. In his exhaustion, Keith barely managed to follow what he said. Also, his happiness that Lance wasn’t ignoring him proved to be a considerable distraction, complicating the exchange further.

“Wait, could you repeat that last part,” he requested.

“I–um, uh.” Lance fumbled with his words. “I–could you come over to my house sometime this week so my mom can meet you?”

“Oh, sure. What day?” he inquired.

“Which days work for you?”

“Any of them. Except, today. I do like to give Shiro at least a one-day warning.”

“How about Wednesday then?” Lance suggested.

“That’ll be fine.”

Lance started walking away, content with his answer, but then turned around and went back. “Will Shiro be driving you or should I?”

“I’ll have to ask Shiro. I will let you know tomorrow,” Keith replied.

“Great! Uh, see you later,” he said, awkwardly waving before returning to his chair.

“Yeah, see you later,” he echoed.

Not long after, Pidge joined him at their table. “What was Lance talking to you about?” they questioned.

“He wants me to meet his mom,” he replied.

“Oh, yeah,” they commented. “She likes to meet all of Lance’s friends. I remember when Hunk and I met her. She’s nice if not loud and energetic.”

Before either could say anything else, Ms. Pride called for their attention and started class.

\---

Keith leaned back, propping his elbows up on the row behind him. Bleachers are so uncomfortable, he complained. How does anyone sit on them for a long time?

Beside him, Hunk rambled on about Lance’s family. After Pidge told him that Keith would be meeting them on Wednesday, he decided to tell Keith as much as possible to prepare him. However, Keith tuned out a few minutes ago; though, Hunk kept talking, despite the fact that Keith didn’t bother to hide his disinterest.

A hand tapped his shoulder, bringing his attention back to Hunk. “Did you hear what I said?” he asked.

“Sure,” Keith answered.

“Really?” Hunk gave him a doubting look. “Then who is Luis?”

“Uh, who?”

Rolling his eyes, Hunk sighed. “Exactly as I thought. You weren’t listening. Here, let me restart.” He took a deep breath and began reiterating himself, but Keith stopped him.

“I’ll tell you right now I am not going to listen. Save your breath.”

“You mean you don’t want to know about his family? You don’t want to be prepared?”

“I intend to stay long enough to meet his mom. Then, I’m leaving,” he insisted. Both Pidge and Hunk bursted into laughter at his statement. “What?” he demanded.

They gave each other a quick glance. “Nothing. You’ll see,” Pidge responded.

Keith thought about pushing for an answer but decided against it, certain Pidge wouldn’t tell him no matter what. Leaning his head back, he let out a puff of air. “How long until practice ends?”

“They should be finishing up now,” Pidge answered.

“Great.” He pulled himself up so he was sitting up. Stretching his arms and legs, he looked out over the field. The group had broken apart and were gathering their individual belongings in preparation to leave. Grabbing their stuff, they headed down the bleachers.

Shiro and Lance walked over not long after, having a hushed conversation together. They separated as they neared.

“Hi,” Lance greeted, paired with a wave. “Ready to go?” he asked, directing his question towards Pidge and Hunk.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Pidge replied with a yawn. They started walking away, leaving everyone else to follow after.

Keith lingered at the back of the group, a couple feet behind the others. As they walked to the parking lot, Lance dropped back to him.

“Hey,” he greeted. “How are you?”

“I’m okay,” Keith answered, response automated. “How about you?”

“Good. So, have you talked with Shiro yet?”

“Not yet. I haven’t had a chance yet. I’ll ask him later when we’re in the car,” he assured, eyes downcast.

“Great. I mean, no pressure,” Lance defended. “It would just be nice to get an answer sooner rather than later, you know.”

He hummed in acknowledgement. “Yeah, I know. I’ll definitely have an answer tomorrow.”

“Okay. Thanks. I–uh–” Lance seemed as though he wanted to continue their conversation, but broke off when he realised they neared Shiro’s car. Instead, he opted for a quick, “See you later.”

“Bye,” Keith echoed. Dumping his bag in the backseat, he climbed inside and sat down. Once they were situated, Shiro started up the engine. It wasn’t until they left the parking lot that Keith worked up the nerve to ask. “Hey Shiro, can I ask you something?”

Shiro’s mouth twisted into a teasing smirk and Keith groaned at his response. “You already have.”

“You know what I meant,” Keith sighed.

His smirk faded. “Yeah, so what do you need?”

Keith chose to stare out the window as he talked. “Lance wants me to go to his house this Wednesday. Apparently, he promised his mom that he’d bring me to meet her.”

“Ah, he mentioned that,” Shiro commented. “That’s fine with me if you want to go.”

“Okay. Also, he wanted to know if you wanted to bring me to his house or if should drive me,” he added. Before Shiro could respond, he continued. “Either one is fine with me. Whichever you find suits you more is okay.”

“Well, it’s not as though he’s a stranger and it’d be easier for him to drive you, so we can do that.”

“Alright. I’ll tell him,” he muttered, zoning out.

\---

The next day, Keith entered chemistry and found Lance standing nervously in front of his table. Walking over, he set down his bag just as Lance began speaking.

“Did you ask him?” he asked, eager for an answer.

He nodded. “Yeah, he said it’s fine. Also, he said it’d be easier if you drove me.”

Lance’s expression shifted into one of relief. “Awesome!” His mouth split into a wide grin.

Keith felt the corners of his own mouth twitch in response to Lance’s joy. “By the way, will there be practice tomorrow?” he asked, forcing his face muscles back to a neutral expression.

“No, we don’t have practice on Wednesdays,” he answered. “Well, class will start soon so see you later.” With a wave, he turned away to go to his table, smile unfaltering.

~∞~

“So, where do you want to meet up after school?”

Lance blinked and refocused on the black-haired boy standing in front of him, a hand on his hip. After a moment of silence, Keith huffed. “Are you even listening, Lance?”

“Huh? Oh yeah,” he stuttered. “We can–we can meet in front of the doors leading to the parking lot on the main hall.”

“Okay,” he agreed. “I’ll meet you there after fourth then.” Keith walked away without further conversation, returning to his own seat.

When he left, Lance let out a long breath. He didn’t know why his chest tightened whenever Keith was near. Breathing got more difficult and laborious around him. His attention always drawn in by those eyes, distracting him from reality.

Stars above, his eyes. A beautiful shade of purple. Dark and dull yet full of depth and life. Cold and distant, a sky full of stars, yet welcoming and alive with emotion under the surface. Dominated by mystery, but inviting nonetheless. A perfect storm.

Wait, what? Lance shook his head, abandoning his train of thought. What the hell am I thinking? Where did all of that come from? There wasn’t–no, it–

Groaning, he rested his head on the table. Unfortunately, Hunk chose that moment to arrive for class.

“What’s wrong?” Hunk inquired, setting his bag down and taking his seat.

“I don’t know,” he sighed, not bothering to lift his head. “I’m questioning my life.”

“How descriptive,” Hunk commented. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Turning his head, he looked over at Hunk, the right side of his face still pressed against the table. “Maybe later, when no one can eavesdrop.”

“Isn’t Keith going to your house today? That’ll make it longer until we have a chance to talk.”

At his name, Lance felt the familiar tightness in his chest. Groaning again, he shifted to his earlier position, face against the cold table top. “Yeah, that’s why I said maybe.” He could feel Hunk’s concerned look. However, he chose to ignore it, energy sapped for the moment.

\---

“Your reading on The Fuoco is due tomorrow,” Mr. Widow reminded them.

Lance sighed as he packed up. Of course he’d procrastinated doing the assignment and of course he’d have to complete it all tonight, on top of Keith’s visit. Though, there were only four short answer questions. It could be worse, he supposed. Everything could always be worse.

When the final bell of the day rang, he grabbed his bag and dashed out, mentally running over all his homework for that evening. Walking through the crowded halls, he stopped off to the side by the doors where they’d agreed to meet. All he had to do now was wait for Keith to show up.

After a while, the halls were deserted. Keith had yet to arrive. The blinding yellow rays of the sun faded to a warm orange. By the time Keith came sprinting down the hall, Lance’s patience had long run dry.

“Where have you been?” he growled. “I’ve been waiting for forever.”

“Sorry I’m so late! I-it took longer than expected to clean up after class,” he apologised, breathing heavily.

Lance sighed. “It’s fine. Whatever. Let’s leave.” Turning around with a huff, he headed outside and to his car, a blue jeep. Behind him, he could hear Keith’s muffled footsteps as the other took to silence. A pang of regret hit him. He was tempted to apologise right then for his harsh tone. However, his low tolerance level screamed at him to get home. Listening to it, he remained silent.

They got into the car and Lance started it. Leaving the parking lot, his annoyance ebbed away, replaced by guilt. He side glanced Keith and spoke up.

“Hey, I’m sorry about being so harsh earlier,” he apologised.

“It’s fine. I’m sorry for taking so long,” Keith replied, staring out the window.

Lance frowned, sensing what he refused to say. In effort to lighten the mood, he decided to change the topic. “See anything interesting out there?”

“Not really. I’m just thinking.”

“About?”

“Stuff...”

“That’s not vague at all,” Lance commented.

Keith laughed at his sarcasm and Lance’s heart stopped. A grin broke out on his face. That sound he would do anything to hear again, his laughter not unlike a soft bell. “Well,” Keith began, laughter dissipating. “I don’t know if I’m comfortable telling you.”

At the drop in mood, Lance’s grin flipped. “Oh, okay.” For the rest of the drive, they lapsed into silence.

Once they arrived at Lance’s house, they hopped out of the jeep and Keith ran his gaze over the house.

“So, what do you think?” Lance asked, curious about his thoughts.

Keith shrugged. “It’s certainly large.”

He laughed. “It’s not much bigger than yours. Though, I suppose the yard does make it appear that way,” he said. “Anyways, let’s go in.” They walked up the path to the front door. Upon reaching it, Lance fished out his keys from his pocket and unlocked the door, pushing it open. “I’m home,” he announced. “And I brought my friend!”

A tall woman, similar in appearance to Lance, appeared from around the corner, wearing a warm smile, bright sapphire eyes shining. She made her way over to them and wrapped Lance in a hug. “Welcome home! How was your day?”

Lance returned the hug. “It was good. How was your day, mama?”

“It was lovely.” Planting a kiss on his forehead, she stepped away to face Keith. “Hello, I’m Lance’s mom. I assume you’re his new friend? It’s nice to meet you.”

Keith gave her a hesitant smile. “My name is Keith. Nice to meet you as well, Ms. McClain.”

“Oh, no need to be so formal. You can call me Martha,” she corrected.

“I-uh, okay,” he responded. “Well, I-”

He got cut off by Lance’s mom. “Why don’t you stay for dinner?” she offered. “It’ll let us get to know you better and you can meet Lance’s siblings.”

“I-I don’t know. I have homework I need to do and my brother doesn’t want me to stay out for too long,” he explained.

“You have your school bag, don’t you? You can do your homework here,” she insisted. “Besides, I’ve already prepared extra food.”

“But-”

Lance rested his hand on Keith’s shoulder, cutting him off. “Just agree to it. She’ll keep insisting and if you do leave, she’ll be upset the whole rest of the night,” he whispered.

Keith deflated a bit, sighing. “Alright,” he complied. “I suppose I can stay for dinner.”

“Perfect!” She clapped her hands together and flashed a bright smile. Turning away, she headed back down the hall into the kitchen. “Dinner will be done in an hour,” she announced.

Lance nodded, despite the fact that she couldn’t see him. Walking over to the couch, he plopped down, dropping his bag on the floor. Seeing Keith still standing, looking lost and hesitant, he waved him over. “Sit down,” he invited. “Make yourself comfortable. You’ll be here for a while.”

“Okay,” he resigned, sitting down next to Lance. “I guess I might as well get started on homework.” His eyes simmered with uncertainty.

“Yeah, I should too,” Lance replied. He leaned down to retrieve his stuff from his bag and Keith did the same. “Hey, do you have Mr. Widow’s lit class?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah, I do,” Keith answered, searching through his bag for a moment longer before cursing. “Fuck.” Sitting back up, he placed his binder on his lap and sighed.

“Have you done the homework on The Fuoco? What’s wrong?” he inquired, having grabbed his own materials.

“Not yet and I realised I left my book at home.”

“We can share my book,” he offered.

Keith shrugged. “Sure. It’ll allow me to actually get something done.”

“Okay,” he commented. Acquiring his textbook, he placed it on his lap and flipped to the first page. Scooting over, Keith moved so he could read alongside him, their legs touching. In their new position, Lance fought to keep his breathing steady, praying Keith couldn’t hear his pounding heart.

They read in silence. More than once, Lance found himself distracted by the other. Every time Keith would tuck a strand of hair behind his ear, despite it doing nothing to prevent his bangs from blocking his vision, Lance couldn’t help but watch the little motion. Whenever his mouth twisted into a frown and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion towards something, Lance’s eyes would be drawn to him. From his position, he could also smell his hair. Though not particularly special, the scent was intoxicating. These all combined caused him to fall behind in reading a lot. While he caught up, Keith looked around the room, taking in their surroundings.

Once they finished reading, they each took out paper and a writing utensil, focusing on the four reading questions they had been assigned to answer. For the most part, they worked in silence, answering each of the questions on their own. However, when Lance read over the last question and began to ponder over his answer, he grew curious of what Keith would answer.

“Hey Keith,” he said, catching the other’s attention.

Looking up from the book, Keith met Lance’s gaze. “Yeah?”

“Out of curiosity, what’s your answer to question four?” he inquired.

“Why are you so curious?” When Lance simply shrugged, he sighed. “Killers and murderers of course. Who else deserves the worst punishment possible?”

“Yeah, that is kind of a given, I suppose. Let me rephrase the question then. Who would get the second worst punishment for you?” he asked.

Keith stopped and thought over his response. After a minute, he replied, “Deserters.”

Lance tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“Like, people who abandon their responsibilities. Who pack up and leave in the middle of the night without a word or warning,” he elaborated. His eyes were fixed on Lance but unfocused, subtle enough that you’d have to know what to look for.

“Oh,” Lance replied, uncertain what to say. He fidgeted and picked at his nails. “I’m-”

Keith cut him off, refocusing his gaze on Lance. “Anyway, what about you?”

“Hmm.” Lance stopped fidgeting and considered the question. “Well, murderers and killers are the worst, duh. Though, I think unfaithful people would be second. You know, people who lie and cheat and go behind their loved ones’ backs. Those kinds of people.”

“Ah, that seems reasonable.” Before either of them could continue, a voice rang out.

“Dinner is ready!” Lance’s mom called.

At those words, Lance shoved his school work aside and stood up, heading to the dining room. Nearing the edge of the living room, he noticed Keith made no attempt to get up. “Come on,” he encouraged, sending him a gentle smile.

“Uh, yeah. I’m coming,” he stammered, getting up. Walking over, Lance gave him another smile. Keith returned it, albeit looking awkward and uncomfortable as he did so.

They entered the dining room and Lance walked over to plant a kiss on his mom’s cheek. “Dinner smells lovely, mama, as always,” he complimented. “Would you like for me to set the table?”

“Yes, please,” she replied, handing him the napkins and utensils.

He accepted them and went around the table, giving each place a fork and napkin, Keith lingering next to the entrance.

“Is-uh, is there anything I can help with?” Keith wondered.

Lance couldn’t stop his hushed laugh, Keith’s uneasiness obvious. “No, you’re a guest. Just sit down.”

“O-okay. Where should I sit?”

Uncertain himself, Lance called to his mom. “Mama, where should Keith sit?”

“He’s a guest! You should know this,” she responded.

“Oh, yeah.” Mentally smacking himself, he pointed towards the chair to the immediate right of the one at the head. “You can sit there.”

“Alright.”

Before he could sit down, a newcomer entered the room, looking five or so years older than Lance. His eyes caught on Keith. “Who’s your friend, Lance?”

Finished setting the table, Lance looked up at his brother. “Marco, this is Keith. Keith, this is my older brother Marco,” he introduced.

Marco smiled and held out his hand towards Keith. “Nice to meet you.”

Staring at his outstretched hand, Keith stiffened before accepting the handshake. “You as well,” he replied politely, face impassive.

“I think Lance has mentioned you before,” Marco mused, much to Lance’s horror. “What was it that he said? Oh yeah.” His voice rose up a few pitches. “Can you believe Keith has a mullet? Like, he does realise the 80’s are over, right? Though, I must admit-”

Lance slapped his hand over his brother’s mouth. “Alright, enough of that,” he interjected, sending Marco a scalding glare.

Then, two young children bursted into the room, laughing. The young boy ran over to Lance, latching onto his leg. “Lance, Veronica is chasing me,” he whined.

Patting his head, Lance gave him an affectionate smile. “Aw, don’t worry, little warrior. Your sister doesn’t want to hurt you. Right, Veronica?” A pointed look in her direction caused Veronica to share at her feet.

“Yes, big brother,” she confirmed. “I was only teasing him.”

At this moment, Lance’s younger brother spotted Keith. “Lance, who’s that?” he asked, pointing at him.

“Hmm? Ah, that’s Keith. Keith, these are my younger siblings, Luis and Veronica.” He pointed at each in turn. “Veronica, Luis, this is Keith, my friend.”

“Hello,” Veronica greeted.

“Hi,” Luis muttered, burying his head in Lance’s thigh.

“Uh, hi,” Keith responded.

Before the conversation could progress anywhere, Lance’s mom entered the room, carrying plates of food. “Ah, everyone is here. Good,” she commented. Going back and forth from the kitchen to dining room, she placed a plate at each seat. “Let’s eat, shall we?” With that, everyone took their seats. Keith reached for his silverware but pulled back as he noticed no one else was. Dropping his head, his midnight black hair fell into his face, obscuring his flushed cheeks. Lance swallowed, finding his actions adorable. “Well, buen provecho (bon appetit),” his mom announced. After that, everyone began eating.

At first, conversation was non-existent. However, as the meal progressed, people began speaking, multiple different conversations happening at once. Keith kept silent, observing. No one invited him to talk and so he didn’t speak.

That was, until Lance’s mom directed her attention to him. “So, Keith, tell us about yourself,” she implored. “How did you and Lance become friends?”

“We have chemistry class together. My lab partner is a friend of his and they introduced me to Lance and Hunk,” he explained.

“Ah. What do you do in your free time? Any hobbies or particular interests?” she inquired further.

Picking at his barely touched food, Keith shrugged. “Not really. Nothing aside from drawing and reading.”

“No clubs or anything?”

“No, I-I was homeschooled for a few years.” The lie slipped off his tongue with ease, though he still felt a prickle of guilt.

“Weren’t you lonely?” Veronica asked.

He shook his head, giving up pretending to eat and placing his fork down. “It wasn’t to me. I enjoyed it.”

“I wouldn’t want to go to school without friends,” Luis commented. “It sounds boring.”

“So, your parents taught you?” Martha questioned, bring the conversation back to Keith.

A flash of mixed emotions crossed his face, indistinguishable from one another. “Uh, not really. It was more of me reading anything I found interesting than any sort of formal education.”

“Interesting,” she commented thoughtfully.

“Ma,” Luis interrupted. “Can we go swimming after dinner?”

She nodded. “Sure, Luis. We can do that.” Marco, Lance, Luis, and Veronica cheered. Their mom laughed at their excitement. Shifting her attention to Keith, she noticed him staring intently at plate. “Would you like to join us, Keith?”

At her invitation, Lance froze, eyes wide. Shaking his head, he opened his mouth to protest but Keith spoke before he could.

“Oh, no thank you. I don’t want to intrude on any family bonding time,” he declined.

“Mama, él no sabe [he doesn’t know],” Lance told her, stopping her before she could respond.

She nodded in understanding. “Oh, mis disculpas [my apologies],” she replied. “I hadn’t considered that. Perhaps another time.”

Lance snorted, picking up on the underlying meaning of her words. “Doubtful,” he muttered. His mom glared at him and he shot her an innocent smile in return.

Keith fidgeted in his seat. “I-I can’t,” he admitted. “Swim that is. I can’t.”

Luis gasped. “You can’t swim?! That horrible! I can’t imagine not being able to swim!”

“No one ever taught you?” Marco asked.

“Well, no,” he responded. “No one ever had the time or assumed I’d been taught...or they didn’t care.”

No one spoke after his statement, tension hidden yet the air thick with it. Lance, picking up on the tone, elected to change the subject.

“Welp, I’m full! Mama, may I be excused?” he requested.

“Oh, yes, of course,” Martha replied, standing up. “We should clean up anyways.” The rest of the family followed her lead. Veronica and Luis dashed out of the room, buzzing with uncontained energy, running off to their rooms to get changed into swimsuits. Meanwhile, the others began cleaning the table and kitchen.

Lance walked back into the dining room to see Keith sitting stiffly at the table. Walking over, he took note of how little he’d eaten. “Hey, are you okay? You haven’t eaten much of your dinner.”

Keith looked up at him, gaze vacant. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just not hungry,” he muttered.

“Okay, I’ll take your plate for you then.” He reached down to pick up the plate.

“I can do that,” Keith protested, grabbing the plate before Lance could and standing up.

“No,” Lance insisted. “You are a guest. My mom will have my head if she thinks I made you clean up you own plate.”

“But-”

“Nope, don’t even start. Just go get your stuff together so we can leave soon,” he told him, yanking the plate from his hands.

“Alright,” he huffed, not bothering with further argument. Turning away, he headed to the living room.

Lance sighed and carried the plate into the kitchen. When he entered, his mom glanced over at the plate and frowned.

“He wasn’t hungry,” he reassured.

“Oh, should we send it home with him?” she asked.

“No, he’ll be fine.”

“Alright.” She retrieved the plate from him and resumed washing the dishes. “Lance, could you dry the dishes after I wash them, please? And Marco, can you put them away once your brother finishes drying them?”

“Yes, mama.”

“Yes, mom.”

They slipped into a smooth rhythm easily. Halfway through the dishes, Lance’s mom spoke up.

“So, Lance,” she began.

“Yes, mama?” he replied.

“Why doesn’t Keith know our family secret? You are friends, are you not?” she inquired.

He let out a startled squeak as the damp plate in his hands nearly slipped from his grasp, almost hitting the floor before he managed to catch it. “Why didn’t I tell Keith we’re hybrids? Well, I mean, I just met him at the beginning of the semester. I’ve never asked him about his opinion on hybrids and so, since I don’t know how he’d react, I never told him.” He handed a plate to Marco, accepting a new one from his mom.

“And what was your ‘doubtful’ comment earlier about?”

“You said ‘maybe another time’ and I was responding to that. For him to join us, he’d have to know and I don’t plan on telling him anything,” he explained.

“Alright,” she commented. “Let’s finish this up so you can get him home.” They resumed cleaning, conversation cut off so it would go quicker.

Upon finishing, Lance threw his rag onto the counter and grabbed his keys. Planting a kiss on his mom’s cheek, he moved to the doorway. “I’m off. I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Stay safe,” his mom called after him as he left the room.

“Don’t crash,” Marco added.

“I’ll try,” he yelled back. Entering the living room, he spotted Keith sitting on the couch, belonging packed. “Come one. Let’s get you home.” Keith nodded, standing up and grabbing his stuff as they left the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive me if my Spanish if off at all. For at least the first statement, I checked with a couple of my acquaintances to make certain it was as accurate as I could get it.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Constructive criticism and feedback is welcomed


	9. Maybe the Bathroom isn’t the Best Place for Revelations

Hunk sat down next to Pidge, placing his food tray on the table. Noting Lance’s absence, he frowned. Lance always arrived before him so the fact that he wasn't there yet was cause for some concern.

“Hey Pidge, have you seen or heard from Lance at all today?” Hunk asked. “He was supposed to call me last night but never did.”

“No, I haven't. My only class with him is chemistry,” they answered.

Hunk sighed. “I hope everything went well with Keith's visit. Oh, by the way, I figured out what that liquid stuff you gave me and Lance the other day was.”

“Really?” Pidge’s eyes lit up. “Tell me!”

He leaned in, keeping his voice down so no one could overhear. “Okay, so it’s made up of a couple different herbs, which you probably don’t care about, and its main purpose is to block pain receptors. While it’s targeted towards hybrids, it also has a weak effect on humans as well. Due to some of the herbs in it, it causes similar effects as certain drugs such as memory loss, dizziness, uncontrolled motor abilities, loopiness, and addiction if someone has too much of it,” he explained.

“That’s interesting,” Pidge commented. “Do you know if it’s targeted towards specific types of hybrids?”

“Yeah, that’s the strange part,” Hunk told them. “It is mostly used for bird hybrids during moulting. I couldn’t find what type, but one species of bird has an insanely painful moulting phase and so needs that drink to dull it.” Finished sharing all the information he’d gained, he reached out for his food. However, before he could begin eating, a hand grabbed his arm, proceeding to drag him away from the table. He yelped in surprise. Twisting around, he saw the perpetrator. “Lance? What-” Catching sight of the urgency written on his face, Hunk fell silent and allowed him to continue dragging him.

Lance brought him into the nearest bathroom. Releasing his grip on Hunk’s arm, he stepped away, back facing his friend.

“What's wrong, Lance? Did something happen? You never called last night. I was worried. Did Keith's visit not go well?” Questions spilled from his mouth in a rush, flooding the silence.

Inhaling and exhaling a few times, Lance remained silent for a bit longer. “Hunk,” he began in a small voice. He mumbled something underneath his breath, so quiet Hunk couldn't hear.

“What?” He asked, hoping Lance would repeat himself.

“I don't-I don't think-” he stammered.

“You don't think what?” Hunk asked, patient while he gathered his words.

“I don't think I'm straight,” he announced suddenly. As the confession left his lips, his shoulders deflated, tension fleeing. “I don't think I'm straight,” he repeated.

“Oh, I thought it was something life threatening,” Hunk breathed. “So, bi or pan? I can't imagine you being gay after all your past crushes. How did you find out?”

Lance did a double-take, spinning around on his heels to face Hunk. “Wait, that's it? I’ve had a major self-realisation and you're all calm about it?”

“Well, I mean, it's a huge deal, but it doesn't matter what you identify as so long as you're happy,” he explained. “Congratulations though. Few 15-year olds can say they've figured themselves out.”

“Okay. Thanks Hunk.”

“So, bi or pan and how did you find out?”

Lance laughed. “Wow, you're so curious. Better watch out. Curiosity killed the cat.”

“But satisfaction brought it back,” Hunk replied, completing the saying without missing a beat.

“True,” Lance agreed. “Anyway, I’m pretty sure I'm bi. It's not like I have evidence for anything else yet.”

Hunk nodded. “Okay. And how did you realise this?”

Lance’s face fell, eyes focusing on the ground, picking at his nails. “I think I might like Keith,” he muttered.

“You-oh.” Hunk’s confusion faded to understanding. “Oh.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Um, can we not tell Pidge this? They'll make fun of me so much.”

Hunk grimaced. “I can-I’ll try.”

“Hunk,” he whined.

“You know I’m awful at keeping secrets, Lance! Plus, Pidge has amazing deducing skills, helped by her...heritage.”

“Just try please?”

“Yeah, I can promise that much,” he assured. “Now, can we go back to the cafeteria? I'm hungry.”

Lance nodded. “Yep, let's go!”

~∞~

Back in the cafeteria, Lance and Hunk joined Pidge at their table. For the first few minutes, there was silence, filled only by Hunk and Lance scarfing down their food to ensure they ate before class started.

“So, your birthday is next week,” Pidge started once they finished eating.

“Mhm,” Lance hummed in acknowledgement. “It is.”

“Are you having a party?” They inquired.

“I mean, of course,” Lance answered. “It wouldn’t be a proper birthday without a party.”

“Whose all going?” Pidge asked. “You usually have a lot of guests.”

“Yeah,” Lance agreed. “However, this year my mom is limiting me to six people.”

“Ouch, harsh,” Hunk commented. “Who are you inviting?”

“You and Pidge, obviously,” he said. “I don't know who else though. I'm not that close with many other people. I have other friends but none are particularly close ones. Not enough to narrow it down to four other people.”

“Are you going to invite Keith?” Pidge questioned.

Lance pondered over his answer for a moment. The thought of Keith being there to celebrate his birthday made him really happy for some reason. “Maybe. I’ll think about it,” he replied, fighting to keep a neutral expression.

“Will you at least tell him it's your birthday?”

“Probably,” he admitted.

“Hey, isn't that him over there? With Shiro, my brother, and some girl,” Pidge commented suddenly, pointing over at a table in the corner. Lance and Hunk turned around to look. Sure enough, there sat Keith, Shiro, Matt, and an unknown girl. At least, unknown to Pidge and Hunk.

“Oh, I know her,” Lance announced. “She's in my theatre class. Her name's Allura.”

“Huh, interesting. Why don't we go over and say hi,” Pidge suggested, already getting up. Hunk and Lance shrugged and followed them to the other table. “Hello,” they greeted upon reaching the group. “Mind if we join you for the rest of lunch?”

“Not at all,” Shiro answered, moving his bag off a nearby chair to free up room for them.

“Thanks,” Pidge said, claiming the seat next to their brother. Lance and Hunk took the two chairs between Shiro and Matt, Lance sitting directly across from Keith.

“Hello,” Lance greeted, sending Keith a half wave and a smile.

Matt reached over and ruffled his sibling’s hair. “Hi Pidgeon. Glad you and your friends decided to join us.”

They batted his hand away. “I was bored. Besides, Lance has something to tell Keith.” A smile smirked flickered across their face.

“Huh?” Lance had been zoned out until Pidge said his name. A slight blush appeared on his cheeks as everyone’s attention shifted to him. “Oh yeah.” He looked at Keith, who watched him expectantly. “My birthday is next week! On Tuesday.”

“Cool,” he commented, expressionless.

Lance’s excitement dropped. From the concerned look Hunk shot him, he knew his disappointment was painted on his face, clear as day. Before he knew what he was doing, his mouth spoke of its own accord. “I’m having a party that day, too. I was wondering if you’d like to come.”

Keith blinked, surprise illuminating his features. “Oh, I’ll have to ask.” Lance nodded, waiting for him to do so. However, Keith didn’t process it until Shiro coughed. He blushed in realisation and brushed a strand of midnight black hair behind his ear. “Uh, yeah, sorry. Is it okay with you, Shiro?”

Shiro gave his brother a sympathetic smile. “Yes, it’s fine.”

“Awesome,” Lance cheered. “I’ll text you more info later.”

Keith nodded. “Okay.”

“Oh,” Shiro said, drawing everyone’s attention. “Lance, Hunk, Pidge, you three probably haven’t met Allura yet.” He reached for the girl’s hand and planted a kiss a top it. “This is Allura, my girlfriend.”

“Hello, I’m Hunk.”

Pidge’s eyes narrowed as they looked at Allura. “Hi. I’m Pidge.”

Lance waved. “Hey. We’ve met before actually. We have theatre together.”

Allura’s eyes lit up in recognition. “Oh, yeah. You’re the kid who makes jokes all the time.”

“Yep, that’s me.” He grinned.

“You know,” Pidge interjected. “Allura, you look familiar. Have we met before?”

Her eyes landed on Pidge and she swallowed. “Uh, no, I don’t believe so,” she replied, eyes downcast. “Might have been someone else.”

They frowned. “No, I don’t think anyone in this school looks like you.” Their eyes examined her, curiosity lurking within. “Wait, weren’t you that person in choir who asked me to listen to your singing?”

“Oh, I remember now,” she commented. Shiro sent her a questioning look, mixed with something resembling either disappointment or anger.

“I’ve been want to ask you,” they began. “Why did you ask me to listen to you?”

“I-uh, I wanted an unbiased opinion,” she answered smoothly.

“But-” The bell rang, breaking off their reply.

Allura shot to her feet. “We should be getting to class,” she announced, pulling Shiro along behind her.

“I should be going too,” Matt said, standing up. “See you in coding, Pidgeon.”

The remaining four got up a moment later and headed down the hall to chemistry. As they walked through the halls, Pidge brought up their conversation.

“Allura seemed to be acting strange back there,” they commented. “As though she was hiding something.”

“Yeah, she seemed tense,” Lance added.

“I think she seemed nice,” Hunk said. “Though, I did get a bit of a weird vibe off of her. Almost like she was holding back or something.” The other two nodded in agreement.

Lance then turned to Keith, who’d stayed silent up to this point. “What do you think, Keith? You know her better than any of us.”

Keith jumped as Lance said his name. “I-I-uh, I didn’t notice anything,” he stuttered. “I’m going-I’m going to get to class.” He took off down the hallway and vanished around a corner, leaving them in confused silence.

~∞~

Keith cursed as he dashed off. He knew they’d see his actions as suspicious, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Turning around a corner, he checked over his shoulder to make sure they couldn’t see him. He had no intention of going to class at the moment and they didn’t need to know. Content that he was out of sight, he ducked into the bathroom.

Sparing a few precious moments, he made certain there were no occupants. As extra precaution, he entered the stall at the very end of the row. He discarded his jacket and sighed as his wings shimmered into existence, crowding the small and enclosed space.

Closing his eyes, he attempted to the breathing exercises Shiro always talked him through. It was difficult without another person. His heart jumped with every footstep heard outside.

Giving up, he groaned. Leaning back against the wall, he huffed. He supposed he’d be stuck for a while. For now, all he could do was grab his phone, text Shiro, and surf the web in hopes of distracting himself.

The bell rang, signalling the start of class. A text popped up a few second later from Lance.

_Waterheart (WH) : Hey you aren’t in class. Is everything alright?_

Keith sighed. He debated replying but decided against it, not in the mood to explain or come up with a lie. Instead, he ignored it, returning to the web page he’d been on beforehand.

~∞~

The bell rang and Lance immediately checked his phone. There was no response from Keith. He sighed.

“No response?” Hunk asked, turning to watch him pack away his stuff.

“Nope,” Lance muttered.

Hunk frowned and gave him a sympathetic look. “Don’t worry. I’m sure he’ll let us know as soon as he can. I hope it’s nothing too serious though.”

“Yeah, sure,” he mumbled. “Let’s just go to fourth. I want to end this day.”

“If it makes you feel better, he hasn’t responded to me either,” Pidge told him, catching up to them as they exited the room.

“Yeah, it makes me feel so much better that Keith skipped class without an explanation and is ignoring all of us for no reason,” he growled. Pidge glared at him than walked off ahead of them.

Hunk placed a hand on his shoulder. “Dude, that was uncalled for.”

Lance sighed. “I know. I’ll apologise later. I’m just worried, Hunk.”

“We all are,” Hunk assured.

“I know. I know.”

~∞~

The next day, Lance flew into the cafeteria. Going towards his usual table, he intercepted Hunk before he could sit down and dragged him back to the bathroom from the previous day.

“Lance,” Hunk whined. “I just want to eat my lunch in peace.”

Pushing through the door, Lance released his hold. “But this is important, Hunk,” he whined in return.

“Ugh, fine,” he conceded. “What is it this time?”

“We haven’t had any time to discuss Pidge and how they forgot about their research on Shiro.”

“Oh, yeah. I kind of forgot about that myself,” Hunk admitted.

“Yeah! So, what are we going to do? What can we do? I don’t want them to go around without some of their memories,” Lance exclaimed, pacing the room.

“Well, I don’t know,” Hunk said. “If it was more like mere amnesia, I could bake a simple cure, but it seems like it’s more complicated and intricate than that.”

“Really? You mean, it’s something magickal?” Lance wondered.

“I think so,” he confirmed.

“So, how do we reverse it?”

“Since I don’t know what type of magick that was used, I can’t answer that right now,” he confessed. “I’ll need to determine how and when they lost their memories.”

Lance fell silent, thinking. “Could we, I don’t know, find a way to temporarily restore their memories? Then the can tell us what happened.”

Hunk considered his suggestion. “I suppose I could make something. The problem lays in how do we get them to eat it? They know better than to eat anything I make since it usually has some sort of magick baked in and they’d never accept food from you.”

“How dare you insult my cooking skills,” Lance huffed, faking offense. “Anyway, what are we gonna do?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. How about we get some lunch and think on it?”

“Sure,” Lance agreed.

With that, they returned to the cafeteria and sat down to eat. As they ate, Lance had a revelation. Tapping Hunk’s shoulder, he exclaimed, “Hunk, you can make the food for my party!”

“Oh, of course! I can do that,” Hunk replied, understanding the unspoken idea.

“Yay,” he cheered. “It’ll be perfect!”

“Speaking of your party,” Pidge interrupted. “Didn’t you say that you’d consider inviting Keith?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“I just find it interesting that, as soon as you told him about your birthday, you invited Keith.” Their eyes glimmered with amusement.

Lance swallowed, a faint blush staining his cheeks. “I said I’d think about it and I did.” Pidge gave him a doubting look. “Uh, I’m gonna head to class early,” he announced, standing up abruptly and taking off.

He slid into a seat beside Keith at his lunch table, causing Keith to jump in surprise. “Hello, I’m trying to hide from Pidge,” he greeted.

“Okay?” Keith gave him a quick glance before averting his gaze back to his food. “I’m sorry about ditching chemistry yesterday,” he apologised after a minute. “Something unexpected came up.”

Lance frowned at his vague excuse but replaced it with a more neutral expression. “It’s fine. No worries. I get it,” he replied. “I hope it wasn’t anything too serious.” Keith didn’t respond to that, his gaze darkening as he continued staring at the table. Turning away, Lance redirected his attention to the other three people. “Hey guys! What’s up?”

Shiro looked up from his hushed conversation with Allura. “Hi Lance. Nothing much.”

“Hello,” Matt greeted. “Nice of you to join us...alone?” He sent Lance a questioning look.

“Yeah,” Lance confirmed. “I’m avoiding Pidge.”

Matt snorted. “Good luck with that. They probably know where you are but chose to wait and let you build up a sense of security.”

“Probably,” he agreed. “But I can dream, can’t I?”

“You can. Doesn’t mean it’s true.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he brushed it off. Scanning his gaze over the table’s occupants, he cleared his throat. “Hey, remember yesterday when I told you about my birthday party next Tuesday?” Three affirmative nods answered him. “Well, I can still invite three more people and my mom wants a final guest list tonight. What I’m trying to ask is do you all want to come to my party?”

“Hell yeah! Sounds great,” Matt exclaimed.

“I’d love to,” Shiro answered.

“Sure,” Allura responded.

“Awesome. I’ll let my mom know and-”

“Hey, what are you talking about?” Pidge asked, them and Hunk sitting down at the table.

“We’re going to Lance’s party,” Matt informed.

“Really?” They glanced over at Lance. “That’s cool. It’ll be fun with us seven.” Matt and Pidge shared a look that caused Lance to squint at them both suspiciously. They definitely had something planned already.

“Anyway, we should get to class,” Lance said, standing up as the bell rang. “I’ll send you all the information over the weekend.” Exchanging nods of understanding, they parted ways and headed to their respective classes.


	10. Gifts, Games, and Disappointment (Not In That Order)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been four weeks since I last updated and I apologise for the unusually long wait. I don't know if you know, but I write a couple of chapters ahead of what is currently posted here. Currently, I have four chapters written ahead of this as a sort of buffer and I update here once I finish another chapter to try and keep that buffer zone at least four chapter ahead. Chapter 14 was difficult for me to write and there was a part towards the end where, every time I looked at the line, my motivation for writing would just vanish. I hate to seem like I'm making excuses, but I wanted to explain to you why this update took so long. Once again, I am sorry for the wait. I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

“I got it,” Lance shouted as the doorbell rang out through the nearly empty house, sprinting down the stairs, taking two at a time. Sliding to a stop, he threw open the front door. “Hunk, come on in!”

Entering the house, Hunk presented the various different pastries and sweets which he carried. “I brought all the desserts you requested,” he announced.

“Awesome!” Lance took a few containers from him to help bring them inside and make it easier on Hunk. “Did you bring the special ones for Pidge?” he asked, lowering his voice so his brother–the only other person home at the moment–wouldn’t overhear.

Hunk nodded. “Yep, those are the peanut butter cookies.”

“Smart,” Lance complimented him. “They can’t refuse those.”

“Yeah, and I baked less of them for safety measures. For everything else, I made enough for everyone to have two. With the cookies, I only baked three.”

“More brilliant ideas,” Lance commented, patting Hunk on the back appreciatively after he set down all the food on the kitchen counter. “This will be an awesome birthday!”

Returning to the living room after putting down all the food, they both reclined back on the couch.

“So, what are the party games for this year?” Hunk inquired.

“Well, first up is truth or kiss.”

“A classic.”

Lance smirked. “Indeed. Next is Twister.”

“Nice.”

“Get Down Mr. President will be played throughout the night.”

“I can feel the floor already.”

“Lastly, to end the night, we’ll do a swimming race.” Hunk opened his mouth to raise his concerns, but Lance stopped him. “I won’t be participating because of our company.”

“Okay, good,” Hunk sighed. “I was about to bring that up.”

“Way ahead of you, buddy. Have a little more faith in me,” Lance stated. “I know what I’m doing.”

“You never know,” Hunk jested.

“I’m offended,” Lance mocked offense. “How dare you think so low of me!” His false outrage sent them into a fit of laughter.

They continued joking and teasing each other until the doorbell rang. Jumping up, Lance announced, “I’ll get it!” Walking over, he threw open the door.

“Hey Shiro, Allura, Keith! Come on in!” He stepped aside to allow them to enter. Closing the door behind them, he did a wide flourish with his arms, showing off the house. “Welcome to my place. Make yourselves at home.”

“Thanks Lance,” Shiro said. “Where should we put your presents?”

Lance grinned as he spotted the two wrapped gifts; one in Shiro’s hands and the other in Keith’s. “You can put them on the table with Hunk’s,” he instructed. “We’re going to hang out in the living room until Pidge and Matt get here.”

“Alright,” Shiro replied.

He and Keith set their gifts down on the table and the three of them joined Lance and Hunk in the living room. Allura and Shiro claimed the love seat, leaving Keith a choice between the empty spot on the couch beside Lance or one of the two solo chairs, of which he chose an empty chair.

“So, Lance, what kinds of things will we be doing?” Allura inquired.

Lance smiled. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

To his left, he heard Keith grumble, “I hate surprises.”

His smile twitched into a frown for a heartbeat, but then the doorbell rang once again, distracting him. Standing up, he went over and opened the door to reveal Matt and Pidge. “Hey, wel-” Suddenly, blue silly string hit his face. Backing away from door, he yelped. “I’ve been attacked,” he shrieked, shielding his eyes.

The others burst into laughter. At least, they laughed until Pidge and Matt turned on them. Keith grabbed one of the massive pillows decorating the couch and curled up behind it, using it as a body shield to protect himself from the barrage of silly string. Shiro, Allura, and Hunk got coated in the stuff, either not bothering to stop it or too slow to prevent it; though, Lance was encased in the stuff. The barrage continued until both siblings’ cans ran empty. For a while, they stood there, laughing.

“People arrived a few minutes ago and you are already a mess,” a new voice remarked.

Looking up from he’d fallen near the door, Lance saw his brother Marco descending the staircase. “It was their fault,” he accused, pointing at Matt and Pidge.

“I don’t doubt that,” Marco commented, scanning the room. “Considering the two silly string containers in their hands. Plus, we all know they’re the type to orchestrate something like this.”

“It was too good a chance to pass up,” Pidge stated between breaths as they collected themself.

Matt gave a last breathy laugh. “Yeah, we had to start the party with a bang.”

“Well, you accomplished that goal,” Marco acknowledged. “Clean yourselves up so we can get started with some party games.”

“Does that mean the attack is over?”

“Yes, Keith. You can come out from behind the pillow now,” Shiro responded, picking strands of silly string off himself while the others did the same.

Keith unfurled himself from behind the pillow and shoved it aside, embarrassed at getting called out, if the pale pink colour staining his cheeks was any indication. In Lance’s eyes, he was adorable.

Shaking his head to remove the thought, he resumed removing all the blue silly string from himself. Having removed all he was aware of, he tossed it into the trash. He stopped by the bathroom, checking his reflection to make certain he was clean, before returning to the living room. “Alright, he began, “Since we’re done with that, let’s get started with our first game!”

“Which is...?” Pidge questioned.

“First, we need to sit in a circle,” Lance instructed, ignoring Pidge, clapping his hands together excitedly. There were a few groans but everyone complied. Once they were in a circle on the floor, Lance told them the game. “We’re going to play truth or kiss!” Groans once again passed through the group, exempting Keith and Hunk.

“What’s truth or kiss?” Keith asked, tilting his head to side in a cute and innocent manner.

“Oh, poor innocent child,” Lance lamented. Keith’s mouth pulled down into a frown, looking so similar to pout that Lance’s words were caught in his throat for a moment. However, he recovered fast enough that he dared to hope no one noticed. “It’s truth or dare but, if you choose to not answer the question, you have to kiss someone of the asker’s choice.” He nodded in understanding. “Now that everyone knows how to play, let’s start. As I’m the birthday boy, I’ll go first.” His eyes scanned the group. “Hey Pidge, what’s the last thing you searched for on your phone?”

Their eyes went wide at the question. “Oh, there is no way in any reality I’m telling you that.”

“Guess you have to kiss Hunk then,” he commanded with a casual tone.

Pidge sighed and leaned over, giving Hunk a quick peck on the cheek. Pulling away, they scanned the group for their target of choice. “Alright, Marco, what’s one thing you don’t want your mom knowing?”

“That’s easy,” Marco scoffed. “I don’t want her to know about all the times I’ve snuck out at night. Matt, what is your dream superpower?”

“I don’t know,” Matt shrugged. “Maybe the ability to control the air would be cool.” At that, Shiro gave a small cough, though no one commented on it. “Allura, share one embarrassing story with us.”

“Okay.” Allura fell silent, considering her response. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. “One-time Keith walked in on me and Shiro making out.”

Keith groaned, his head falling into his hands. “Suns above, I remember that. I want to wash my brain with bleach to get rid of that memory.” Laughter followed his statement.

“Anyway,” Allura continued, unaffected. “Shiro, what’s five things you’ve bought and never used or regretted buying?”

“I mean, I’ve bought a lot I’ve never used, but that’s because it was for you or Keith. I’ve never regretted anything,” Shiro mussed. “I guess any five books on Keith’s bookshelf or something.”

“You’re so responsible, Shiro,” Pidge commented, playfully nudging his side.

He shrugged. “I guess. Hunk, what’s one thing you’d change about your life if given the chance?”

Hunk considered the question. “I’d like the change the amount of secrets kept between friends.” No one responded to that. A few eyes lowered to the floor, the owners unable to hide their guilt. “So, Pidge,” he continued as if he hadn’t noticed the reaction, “have you ever cheated on anything in school?”

“Oh, yeah, more than once,” Pidge confirmed.

“Pidgeon Holt,” Matt gasped. “You’ve cheated in school?”

“Well, yeah,” Pidge shot back in retaliation. “So have you, mister moral high ground!”

“It was one time!”

“You still did it,” Pidge smirked. “Whatever. Keith, if you got stranded on an island with one other person here, who would you want with you?”

“Either Shiro or Hunk,” he answered. “Shiro’s resourceful and Hunk would be useful for food.”

“Normally, I might be offended,” Lance commented, “but those are both reasonable choices.”

“I’m happy you wouldn’t mind if we got stranded on an island together,” Hunk said with a laugh.

Keith’s gaze swept over the group. “Okay, Matt. What’s your biggest pet peeve?”

Matt groaned, throwing his head back. “I have so many. How can I choose one?” He sighed. “If I had to choose, it would be when people try to use memes without understanding them. Allura, what’s one thing you can’t live without?”

“My car,” she answered without hesitation. “Marco, name something on your bucket list?”

As Marco considered his answer, Lance began the next game by placing a finger in his ear, mimicking what secret agents do when speaking into ear pieces. Hunk, having been forewarned about this game, noticed soon after it began and followed his lead. Pidge took up the action next. Then, Keith noticed and opened his mouth to question them, but Pidge hushed him and gestured for him to do it, which he did without complaint. The fourth person to notice was Shiro, who rolled his eyes before doing it as well. This left Marco and Allura, who they all watched with increasing interest to see who would be the first to notice. As it turned out, Marco spotted them right as he was about to answer Allura’s question.

Everyone turned to Allura at that, who regarded them with a blank stare. “Get down Mr. President,” they all shrieked, minus Keith and Allura, both of whom watched with confused gazes as the rest of the group tackled Allura, knocking her to the ground.

“The fuck?” Allura exclaimed without thought, struggling against the five-people stacked on top of her. After a minute or two, they clamoured off of her, all breathless with laughter. “What in the known universe was that?” Allura demanded.

“That was the secret game of the night,” Lance explained. “It’s called Get Down Mr. President. One person starts by putting their finger in their ear like a secret agent or something. Everyone else follows their lead as they notice. Last person to not have their finger in their ear is the president and gets tackled.”

“Oh, so that’s why Pidge didn’t want me to say anything,” Keith realised.

“Yep,” Pidge confirmed. “We couldn’t have you ruining the fun of the game.”

“Anyway,” Allura interrupted, bringing them off their tangent. “Marco, have you got an answer for me?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I want to skydive one day.”

“Interesting,” Allura commented. “Go ahead. It’s your turn.”

His eyes examined each person in the group. “Lance, name one thing you like and one thing you dislike about yourself.”

“Well, I hate how I always like a waste of space and air and how I get pushed to the side by people I think are my friends because they can relate on more levels than I can. I hate how more often than not, I feel like a third-, fifth-, or even seventh-wheel in my relationships,” he answered without missing a beat, face expressionless as he poured out his feelings in front of everyone. Everyone gapped at his response, mouths hanging open in shock. “Kidding. I’m joking,” he told them after a moment, pairing it with a half-hearted laugh. “I hate how amazing I am because my friends feel worse about themselves when they’re around me.” Despite his attempt to laugh off his first statement, no one said anything. “So, Allura, are you a virgin?” That question revived everyone from their shaken slumber.

Keith made a gagging sound and motion. “I don’t want to know that,” he exclaimed.

Shiro and Allura exchanged a glance. “I don’t want to answer that,” Allura chose to say.

“Then you gotta kiss Matt,” Lance replied.

“Fine.” She leaned over and gave Matt a quick kiss on the cheek. “There. Hunk, what would make you lie to cover for a friend?”

“I’d never lie for anyone, friend or otherwise,” Hunk replied. “I’d only not share secret information that is not my place to share.” His gaze regarded each person as he debated who to ask. “Keith, have you ever told a lie to a friend and, if so, who was it?”

Opening his mouth, Keith hesitated in his response. “I’d rather not say.”

Hunk frowned. “Well, I’ll have you kiss...Lance.”

“What?!” Lance squeaked, whirling his head towards Hunk, eyes wide. Giving him an apologetic look, Hunk shrugged. “Ugh, alright.”

Tentatively, Keith stood up and crossed the circle to Lance, sitting down in front of him, legs tucked underneath him. He leaned over and pressed his soft lips to Lance’s cheek, retreating a heartbeat after they connected, leaving a faint trace of burning warmth where they touched Lance’s skin. Eyes downcast, Keith got up and returned to his spot. Lance also refused to look anywhere aside from the floor, cheeks aflame, pointlessly trying to appear unaffected.

“Alright, Pidge, what’s your greatest fear?” Keith asked.

“That’s easy. My biggest fear is getting cut off from technology.” Their eyes fell on Lance, whose eyes stayed downcast, and they grinned. “Hey Lance, who do you have a crush on?”

His blush increased as his head whipped up to glare at them. “No,” he insisted, refusing to say more than that.

Pidge laughed, a mischievous light flickering in their eyes. “Expected. Kiss Keith.”

Lance’s mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air, glancing between Pidge and Keith, debating his choices. He could either kiss Keith or announce to everyone that he had a crush on Keith; both options seemed bad; though, he wouldn’t exactly mind kissing Keith. Resigning himself to his fate, he got up and walked over to Keith. Inhaling, he leaned down and placed a short peck on his cheek. Pulling back, he regretted it. Keith radiated heat–gentle and calming rather than a fierce burning sensation–and it held a stark contrast to the cold air of the house that now caressed his face. Gods above, he could imagine curling up around him on a cold winter’s night, snuggled up together underneath a stack of blankets, warm and cosy.

Returning to his seat, he sat down and gazed over at Keith. Face passive, Keith stared ahead, seeming stuck in place, unblinking and motionless. Lance flashed him a teasing smirk before remembering he had a question to ask someone.

“Oh, right.” His eyes scanned the group, panicked, causing him to call the first name which popped into his mind. “Keith, what’s the most recent lie you’ve told?”

It took Keith a moment to register the question. When he did, he met Lance’s eyes directly on, sadness dancing within them as he told him his answer. “The last lie I told would have to be ‘I didn’t notice anything. I’m going to class.’”

Lance swallowed as he realised why that statement was familiar. Any confidence he had from stunning Keith dissipated in an instant and his posture became slouched, eyes focusing on his hands as he fidgeted with the carpet.

Tearing his gaze away from Lance, Keith focused on Shiro. “Shiro, have you ever pretended to be asleep or busy in order to avoid someone?”

“Yeah, a couple times.” He didn’t give anyone a chance to react before he moved on. “Marco, what’s one thing your friends think about you that’s untrue?”

“Well, I guess a lot of people assume I do a lot of drugs. Truth is I’ve never touched any drugs outside of medicine and never been addicted to anything,” Marco answered. “Allura, name someone who you’ve had romantic feelings for but the other person didn’t feel the same way.”

The question seemed to surprise her. “I-I’d rather not say,” she replied, eyes adverted to the right.

“Whelp, kiss Shiro then,” Matt commanded.

“Easy,” she sighed, kissing her partner on the mouth. Keith and Pidge both made gagging motions, laughing when they noticed each other’s actions. Pulling away, Allura smiled. “Hey Matt, name one person who has made a decision you disapprove of and tell us what it was.”

Matt glanced at his sibling, turning away as their eyes met. “Yeah, I care about my own life so I’ll decline that one.” Pidge smirked.

“Kiss...Shiro, I guess.”

His face flushed, red blooming on his cheeks. “O-okay.” Covering their mouth, Pidge attempted to hide their laughter as Matt leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on Shiro’s cheek, pulling away with the slightest bit of hesitation. “Uh, Hunk, what’s the biggest lie you’ve told?”

“No mom, I didn’t know Lance was planning on doing that,” Hunk recited. “Shiro, when did you have your first kiss and with whom?”

“The fifteenth of December of last year,” Shiro repeated from memory. “It was with Allura.” He examined the group. “Lance, give someone in the group honest relationship advice.”

“Hmm, let’s see.” Regarding everyone gathered there, Lance debated his options. “Matt, you’re really obvious. Just go for it and see what happens.” Ducking his head, Matt stared at the floor, uncomfortable from being called out. “Alright, Shiro, when was the last time you cried and why?”

Shiro went silent, eyebrows furrowed while he contemplated his response. Out of boredom, Lance initiated another round of Get Down Mr. President. The first to notice was Pidge, Keith following behind not long after, vigilant against the game in order to avoid its consequence. Hunk and Allura were next, Allura giving Lance a quick glance in annoyance, likely caused from the first time. Last to pick up on it was Marco. That left Shiro, whose eyes widened in realisation even as his mouth opened to answer the question.

“Get down Mr. President,” they yelled in near unison, once again without Keith. Leaping forward, they tackled Shiro.

“Why?” he groaned.

“Because it’s fun,” Lance answered.

“I like not being on the receiving end,” Allura commented.

“No surprise there,” Shiro mumbled. “Okay, get off me now so we can continue the other game.” One by one, people climbed off Shiro. Once he was freed, he answered Lance’s question. “The last time I can recall crying was four years ago when Keith was adopted.”

“You cried when your family adopted me?” Keith asked in wonder.

Shiro nodded. “Yeah, after my parents signed the adoption papers. I was so happy that I couldn’t help myself.” Keith’s eyes dropped to the ground even as a smile appeared on his face, Lance managing to capture a mere glimpse of the mess of emotions filling his face.

“Okay, I call bluff,” Lance stated. “No way it’s been four years since you last cried.”

“It’s unlikely, but I can’t remember any more recent time,” Shiro shrugged. “Continuing with the game, Marco, what’s one thing you’d change about yourself?”

“That’s difficult,” Marco mused. “I don’t think I’d change anything. I’m content with my life as is. Pidge, what’s your biggest regret?”

“Being born,” Pidge joked in a flat tone. “In reality, not taking physics because chemistry is dull.”

“If you had, we wouldn’t have met Keith,” Hunk pointed out.

They nodded. “True. Speaking of Keith, what’s one thing you’ve done that people wouldn’t think you would have done?”

“Uh, I don’t know. Maybe dropping out of school.” He shrugged. “Lance, what’s the most embarrassing thing Marco has seen you do?”

Lance exchanged a glance with his older brother. “Let’s not discuss that.”

“Alright...kiss Hunk, I suppose,” Keith said.

Lance gave Hunk a kiss with no hesitation at all. Pulling back, he sighed. “I’m bored,” he announced. “Let’s move on.”

“Okay. So, what next?” Marco asked.

Eyes shooting wide with excitement, Lance jumped to his feet. “How about gifts and food?”

No one objected and they all got up and walked to the dining room, each taking a seat at the table, Lance at the head, presents laid out in front of him. Grabbing the nearest present, he read the tag aloud. “From Shiro and Allura.”

“Actually,” Shiro stopped him. “You should wait to open ours after you open Keith’s.”

“Oh, okay.” Placing that present aside, he picked up the another one to start with. “This is Hunk’s,” he announced. Tearing into the wrapping paper, a smile pile began accumulating on the floor beside him. He frowned as the paper revealed a cardboard box. “Wow, a box. Exactly what I wanted,” he joked. Ripping the tape off, he opened the box, joy illuminating his face. From the box, he removed two bottles of lotion and a box of blue and green bath bombs. Going over to Hunk, he gave him a big hug. “Thank you! I love your practical gifts,” he exclaimed.

“You’re welcome,” Hunk chuckled, returning the hug.

Letting him go, Lance returned to the head of the table. Moving Hunk’s gifts to the side, he brought over the next one. He poked the thin box curiously. “This is Keith’s,” he informed everyone. Torn paper fluttered to the ground, adding to the growing pile, as he tore into it. Opening the box, he pulled out a sheet of paper. After examining it for a long moment, he showed it off to the group. It was a drawing of the seven of them, Marco having been unincluded, each shaded in a different colour: blue for Lance, green for Pidge, yellow for Hunk, orange for Matt, black for Shiro, pink for Allura, and red for Keith. “This is awesome!” Without thinking, Lance went over and pulled Keith into a hug.

“That’s a beautiful drawing,” Hunk complimented. The others agreed and gave similar praises.

Keith’s face burned bright red from all the compliments and the hug. “I’m glad you like it,” he said.

At this point, Lance regained his sense and let go of Keith, face aflame. “Thank you,” he told him. “A lot.” Embarrassed and awkward, he turned away and returned to the table’s head, placing Keith’s gift aside and focusing on the next.

~∞~

Once Lance severed the hug, Keith could breathe again. As Lance thanked him, his eyes fell to the ground, shocked and timid from all the praise. “You’re welcome,” he replied to Lance’s thanks. “I know how much you care about your friends, so I thought...” Looking up, he trailed off, realising no one was listening, all distracted as Lance resumed opening presents. Sighing, he scolded his features into neutrality and tried to brush off the action as if it meant nothing.

~∞~

Lance tore into Allura and Shiro’s present. Discarding the paper, he held up a beautiful blue picture frame, decorated with wave like designs. “This is gorgeous,” Lance gushed, flipping it around so everyone could see it. “Thank you so much!”

“You know, it seems to be the perfect size for Keith’s artwork,” Shiro suggested, anything but subtle.

Eyes lighting up, Lance grabbed the drawing and compared its size to the frame, a grin spreading across his face. “You planned this,” he asserted. Sliding the drawing into the frame, his smile softened. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Allura and Shiro chimed in unison.

Propping the frame’s stand, he placed it down on the table facing himself. “The last present,” he declared, holding it up. “From Matt and Pidge.” Ripping away the paper, he threw it into the messy and scattered pile on the floor. He squealed loudly at the revealed shark plushie. “Oh my goodness, this is so adorable!” Lance ran over and wrapped the siblings in a massive hug. “Thank you so much for this adorableness! I shall name them Blue!”

“How original,” Keith muttered.

Whirling around, Lance clutched Blue to his chest protectively. “You’re just jealous because you’ve never gotten such an amazing gift for your birthday!” At that moment, Lance processed Keith’s body language: his arms crossed over his chest, a disappointed light swimming in his dull violet eyes as they shifted right to avoid Lance. Concern blossomed within him, but he didn’t know what to say and chose to change the topic. “I’ll clean up in here while you all start on food. We have pizza, cupcakes, cookies, and ice cream in the kitchen. Get whatever you want.” Leaning down, he began gathering up the stray bits of paper littering the floor as everyone went into the kitchen. Throwing it all into one of the boxes, he carried all the boxes into the kitchen.

Upon entering, he observed Keith standing in the centre of the room, looking rather lost while everyone else headed to the living room with plates of food.

“You okay?” he inquired, putting the boxes in the recycling bin. Keith stared at the ground, fidgeting with his jacket zipper, silent. “Uh, Keith? Is something wrong?”

Finally, after another minute of silence, he spoke up. “I-I’m lactose intolerant,” he mumbled under his breath, to the point where Lance had to lean closer to hear.

“What-oh.” The pieces connected in his mind and he nodded in understanding. “We can find something, I’m sure.” His eyes scanned over the room, mind running through ideas. “Why didn’t you say anything sooner? I would’ve made sure we had something prepared.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have said anything if Shiro weren’t here,” Keith replied. “I would’ve been fine–I’ve got my meds–but Shiro won’t let me.”

“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Lance returned, opening the fridge. Keith’s reply consisted of a single sigh. At his annoyance, Lance couldn’t help but laugh. His stubbornness in his beliefs showed, probably more than he noticed. Turning his attention back to the fridge, he examined his options. “Do you like peanut butter and jelly?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“I can find something else,” he offered. “It’s no trouble.”

“No, it’s okay,” Keith insisted.

Complying, Lance grabbed a jar of jelly, bread, and peanut butter. Without asking Keith, he threw together the sandwich and handed it over.

“Thanks,” Keith told him, accepting it. “But, you know, I could have made it.”

“You are a guest,” Lance replied with a smile.

“O-okay.” With that, Keith went into the living room.

Once he was alone, Lance set about making his own plate of food. Grabbing one of everything, minus the peanut butter cookies, he headed out to the living room, content.

Entering, he was pleased to see everyone else sitting around, also content, enjoying the food and talking amongst themselves. He took a seat on the couch between Hunk and Pidge.

“Hey Keith,” Pidge started. “Why are you eating a sandwich? Do you not like pizza?”

Keith sent Shiro a quick glance before answering. “I-well, I’m lactose intolerant. I can’t eat it.”

Hunk’s pizza, which he had held in his hand, flopped down onto his plate at Keith’s admission. “Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve baked stuff you could eat!” His face fell, disappointed clear as day upon it.

“That’s what I said! We could’ve prepared for this,” Lance exclaimed.

Guilt flashed across Keith’s face as he slouched down in his seat. “Sorry,” he apologised.

“It’s fine,” Hunk sighed. After a moment, his face lit up. “I can bake you something later to make up for it!”

“You don’t have to,” Keith protested.

Hunk’s eyes filled with determination. “But I want to.”

“Oh, okay.” A faint smile appeared on his face.

After that, the group lapsed into a comfortable silence as they continued eating. Occasionally someone would make a comment about something, but, for the most part, it was a quiet and relaxed atmosphere.

All of that ended as soon as Pidge took a bite into one of the peanut butter cookies.

Their eyes flew wide, pupils dilated. Putting the cookie back on their plate, they moved the plate onto the table in front of them. “Hunk, Lance,” they drawled. “May I speak with you in the other room?”

The two of them shot each other worried glances before nodding. Pidge stood up, heading for the kitchen, and they followed. Once there, Pidge began speaking.

“First of all, how dare you trick me into eating enchanted food,” they scolded. “Second, I remember some things. It’s vague, but I can recall having my memories intact before meeting Allura for the first time in the chorus room.”

“Can you tell us what happened?” Lance pushed, wanting as much information as they could get.

“Yeah,” Pidge confirmed. “Again, it’s fuzzy, but I remember entering the choir room, looking for something. Allura was there and handed me a notebook. When I went to leave, she started singing. After that, it’s a blur.”

“Is that all?” Hunk asked. “You can’t even remember what you went to the choir room for?”

“Like I said, it’s a blur and it keeps getting more difficult to think about. Your magick cookie isn’t going to last much longer,” Pidge replied. “When this spell wears off, pretend we never had this conversation.”

“But-” Hunk started to protest.

“No,” Pidge cut him off. “Knowing myself, I won’t believe you without right. Plus, it will make things easier.”

“Okay,” Lance agreed, Hunk doing the same. “Let’s go back to the living room.”

As they crossed the threshold between the living room and kitchen, Pidge halted and shuttered, eyes clouding over before clearing and they continued forward as if nothing happened. Hopping back onto the sofa, the three of them scarfed down the last of their dinners.

Swallowing his last bite, Lance noted everyone else was finished as well. “Since we’re all done, let’s move onto the next game, which is Twister.” Reaching underneath the coffee table, he grabbed the box and held it up for everyone to see.

Everyone got up and moved aside to allow for Shiro and Hunk to push the coffee table against the couch, granting them more room to lay the mat down and maneuverer. Lance threw the box’s lid aside with a dramatic flourish. Grabbing the mat, he laid it out on the ground, making certain all the creases were smoothed out. He returned to the box and removed the spinner, placing it on the table and throwing the box over next to its lid.

“I call spinner,” Hunk announced once everything was set up. When no one challenged his claim, he sat down next to the table, grabbing the spinner from off it.

Keith walked over to one of the chairs and sat down. “I’ll sit out,” he informed them.

“We’re going to play two rounds,” Lance stated. “Since four people is more than enough to be on the mat at once. I’m also going to sit out this round.” His eyes swept over the other five people. “Who else wants to wait until the next round to play?”

“I will,” Matt offered when no one else stepped forward.

“Okay. Let’s get started then.” Lance crawled over the table and sat on the couch, legs stretched out so he took up the entire sofa, one arm draped over the back. Matt claimed a seat beside Hunk on the floor. “What’s the first instruction, Hunk?”

“Right hand on green,” he called out after spinning the spinner. Everyone did as they were told. “Right foot on yellow,” Hunk ordered.

For a while, the game went on without much action, monotonous and predictable. However, they all took amusement in watching the positions some people ended up in. Things became interesting when Hunk called out for left hand on blue.

Marco, Allura, and Shiro instantly claimed the nearest circles, leaving Pidge with having to reach for a circle on the other side of everyone. They grumbled some complaint underneath their breath and began crawling underneath the other players. Their fingers brushed the edge of the coloured spot as their other arm and both legs buckled underneath them. Yelping, they face planted on the mat. Picking themself up, they back out from under everyone and left the mat, lips curled into a frown.

Lance, Matt, Hunk, Marco, and Shiro were all dying of laughter at Pidge’s antics while Keith and Allura fought back their own, instead wearing amused smiles. Pidge clambered onto the couch, pushing Lance’ legs away to clear room for themself, crossing their arms over their chest and pouting. Shiro ended up falling due to his own laughter, kicking him out of the game. As he dragged himself onto a vacant chair, the wave of laughter faded, depleted to a few smiles and eyes shining with humour.

Once everyone recovered, the game continued but with small alterations. The first was having separate spins for each player. Second was the addition of the chance of having to hold a limb in the air, it unable to touch the ground or another object.

After a few rounds, Marco ended up with his left foot on red, right foot on yellow, left hand on green, and right hand on blue. Allura had her left foot on blue, right hand in the air, and both her right foot and left hand on red.

Swallowing his laughter, Lance initiated a round of Get Down Mr. President. Everyone not preoccupied with Twister noticed and followed his lead, leaving Allura and Marco that last two for the second time that night.

Marco turned his head to ask Hunk for the next instruction. His eyes flew open as he noticed what was going on. Shaking his head, his expression was one of pleading. “Please don’t do this, Lance,” he begged.

Lance gave him a mischievous grin in response, acknowledging the situation he’d forced his brother into. There were two choices for him: take his hand off the mat to avoid getting tackled, which would disqualify him from winning, or get tackled and fall down, giving the win to Allura. Either way, Marco would lose. The question here was how stubborn he’d be about giving in.

However, while Lance and Marco stared each other down, Allura looked over her shoulder to see what the issue was, eyes glimmering with realisation as she took in the situation. Saving Marco from making the decision, she brought her finger to her ear.

“Get down Mr. President,” Lance said in a quiet voice.

Marco shrieked as Lance, Hunk, Matt, Pidge, and Shiro all pounced. His legs and arms buckled, sending him crashing to the ground under the weight of everyone. Once again, laughter filled the room.

“I win,” Allura called.

“That’s not fair,” Marco protested.

“It is,” Lance replied, panting from his laughter.

Marco huffed. “Whatever. Get off me already!”

Giving one last breathy laugh, Lance and the others got off his brother. When everyone was back on their feet, Lance dusted his hands off.

“Alright, time for the second round,” he commanded. While he, Matt, Keith, and Hunk stood around the board, Allura claimed position as the spinner. Thus, the game began.

\---

Lance ended up winning the game.

Keith was the first out, every movement of his stiff and hesitant, leading him to falter and hit the ground seven spins in. Hunk left the mat next, out lasting Keith by three times as many rounds. As Hunk left the board, they did the same procedure as the first round: individual spins and the potential to elevate a limp. Under those rules, Matt and Lance lasted multiple rounds, equals, until Matt misplaced his hand and slipped, falling onto his butt.

Getting up and stretching, Lance grinned at his acquired win. “Victory para mi,” he laughed. “Alright, let’s move on. I’m bored with this.”

“What is the next game?” Matt asked, rubbing his bruised bottom. “I hope it’s something less painful.”

Lance’s eyes widened in excitement. “We’re doing a swimming race! Let’s go get changed into our swimsuits! You all did bring you swimsuits, right?” A series of nods answered him. “Alright then, let’s go.” Everyone started heading for either of the two bathrooms–one upstairs and the other on the current floor–each person going in one at a time to change.

As Lance turned to head up to bedroom like his brother did, he heard Keith mutter under his breath.

“I guess I’ll wait here then,” he sighed, staying on the couch from where he hadn’t moved since losing the round of Twister.

“Oh yeah,” Lance commented, aware of Keith’s predicament. “Sorry, I should have planned this a bit better.”

“No, it’s fine,” he replied. “It’s your birthday. Do what you want and don’t worry about anyone else. You’re excited about this so go ahead.” Despite his words and encouraging expression, Lance could make out the faintest glimmer of sadness in Keith’s eyes.

“If you’re sure.”

Keith assured him that he was and Lance turned away. Walking towards the stairs, Lance forced himself to keep moving, scolding himself as he did, knowing Keith wasn’t being truthful but unwilling to confront him. Going to his room, he closed the door and began changing. Just because I can’t swim tonight doesn’t mean I can’t at least dress for it.

~∞~

Keith waited in the living room while everyone else changed, playing a game of solitaire on his phone without much thought. Despite everything he’d said to Lance, he was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to participate. The idea of swimming intrigued him but he’d never had a chance to learn or even attempt it.

As he continued his game, people trickled back into the room. Laying down the last card, the last person returned.

“Alright, since everyone is here, let’s head to the pool,” Lance announced, jumping to his feet. Leading the way, he guided them into the fenced in backyard. “I’ll let you all swim around for a bit to warm up before the race.”

“You won’t be swimming?” Allura inquired.

Lance shook his head. “Nah, I’m not in the mood,” he explained. “I’m going to watch you and determine the winner.”

“Okay. Well, I must go to the bathroom,” Allura stated. She turned around and walked back into the house.

“I’m kind of thirsty,” Lance announced. “I’m going to get a drink. Anyone want anything?” Pidge, Keith, and Hunk shook their heads and declined the offer.

“I want something to drink,” Shiro responded. “But I’ll go with you and get it myself.”

“Okay.”

With that, Lance and Shiro walked back into the house as well, leaving Keith to stare dejectedly at the door, his entire support system–Shiro and Allura–having left him alone.

Behind him, four splashes echoed along with cheerful shouts. Resigning himself to his fate, Keith walked over to the side of the pool and sat down. Rolling his jeans up, he dipped his feet and lower legs into the cold water.

After a couple minutes, Pidge swam over and lifted themself out of the pool, perching on the side next to him.

“Hey,” they greeted. “You’re not going to come join us?”

He shook his head. “No, I’d rather not.”

“Oh, okay.” They lingered next to him, lazily kicking their legs in the water. “Well, it’s a shame you’ll not be joining.” Leaving it at that, they hopped back into the pool and swam over to where the others were playing around and splashing each other.

His head tilted to the side at Pidge’s last words, thinking over them. Keith couldn’t determine whether they were a temptation or something else. Leaning his head back, he stared up at the night sky, watching stars fade in and out of existence as dark tendrils of clouds swirling around in the darkness, covering and uncovering patches of the sky without thought or reason. Away his mind drifted, unanchored from the earth as it nestled within the space between the stars, lost to time. Words vanished from his thoughts, images and impressions replacing them. Perhaps if he could stay, he might have remained lost to the world, taken away by space and time with a mere shell left behind to show he had ever existed at all. However, it was not to be.

A sudden yelp and splash shook him awake as damp cold consumed him, assaulting his senses. Shaken out of his haze, he panicked as water rushed around him. He tried to breathe but found himself unable, liquid replacing the oxygen upon which he relied on. Flailing around, he attempted to move upwards out of the water. His head hit stone before he could realise his error, vision growing dark as he heard muffled voices surround him.

~∞~

Lance and Shiro had left the kitchen and were walking with at a leisurely pace back to the backyard when they heard a loud shout and a splash. Sending each other a quick glance, they picked up their pace and sprinted to the backyard.

There, they found their friends, all four worked up into a panic. They saw Hunk and Marco dive under the water’s surfaced as Matt and Pidge watched on with horrified expressions. A heartbeat later, the former two resurfaced with Keith held between them, motionless. As they hefted Keith on solid ground, Shiro and Lance raced over.

Beating Lance, Shiro fell to his knees beside his unconscious brother, brushing Keith’s soaked, long, black bangs from off his face. “Keith? Can you hear me? Keith?!” Tears pricked at the corner of his eyes as he called out for his brother.

Lance whirled around to look at Pidge, Matt, Hunk, and Marco. “What in the world happened? How did Keith end up in the pool?” he demanded to know, breathing heavily. The four-remained silent, eyes averted. Catching his breath before anyone of them decided to answer, he shouted, “He can’t swim!” At that, all of their faces filled with pure terror.

“What?” Pidge squeaked out.

Lance repeated himself. “Keith cannot swim!”

“Gods above,” Pidge cursed. “We’re idiots.”

“We didn’t know,” Marco muttered in their defence.

At that, Lance spun towards his brother, eyes ablaze with outrage. “You can’t excuse yourself! You were there when Keith told us he couldn’t swim!”

“You think I pay attention to stuff about people I don’t know?” Marco returned.

“No, I just thought you had some sense in that thick brain of yours!”

“Guys,” Shiro interrupted. Everyone turned to look at him. “We don’t have time to place blame. Keith needs medical attention and soon.”

“He’s right,” Lance sighed, collecting himself for Keith’s sake.

“Good.” Shiro gazed down at his brother. “Does anyone here know CPR?”

“I do,” Matt answered, raising his hand. Walking over, he started performing CPR on Keith.

“Alright, now that that is being taken care of, we can move onto other matters.” Standing up, Shiro walked over to the other four people. “Marco, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Opening his mouth, Marco started to protest but saw Lance’s face and knew leaving was the better option. As he entered the house, Allura returned. Gazing around at the scene before her, she sent Shiro a questioning look.

“What happened here?” she asked.

“That’s what we’re about to find out,” Shiro answered. “Hunk, Pidge, care to tell us how my brother ended up in the pool and came close to drowning?”

“It was my fault,” Pidge replied, stepping forward. “I got out of the pool and was heading over to the other end to jump in. I wasn’t paying attention and slipped while running over. As I fell, I hit Keith and sent us both into the pool.”

“Pidge,” Lance sighed, “You know you’re not supposed to run next to the pool.”

“I know,” they confirmed. “I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.”

“It was an accident. Next time, pay more attention,” Shiro advised.

“I will.”

“Uh, guys,” Matt called. “I think he’d waking up.”

The four of them turned around and rushed over. Holding their breath, they waited, hopeful.

Keith shot up with not warning, eyes flying open, coughing up small amounts of water. As his coughing slowed, he looked around at everyone. “What-what happened?” he croaked.

Everyone wrapped him up in a group hug.

“You almost died is what happened,” Lance cried.

“I’m so happy Matt knew CPR and you didn’t die,” Shiro sniffled. “Thank the gods!”

“Yeah, I’m glad too. Okay, can we get off me now? I can’t breathe.” Keith broke into a coughing fit.

“Sorry,” Shiro apologised as they all backed away.

“We’re just so happy,” Lance stated.

“Alright, I think there’s been enough excitement for the day,” Shiro said. “I’m going to take Keith home so I can make sure he isn’t injured any more than he looks.”

“Good idea,” Keith coughed.

“Thank you for inviting us, Lance,” Shiro thanked him. “We had fun. Now, come on, Keith.” He placed a hand on his brother’s back and guided him away.

“Thanks Lance,” Keith called out. “It was nice.” He sent Lance a small genuine smile and a wave.

“See you tomorrow,” Lance shouted after them.

The door closed and they vanished from sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Constructive feedback and advice is welcome


	11. Keith’s Sick and Pidge was Right

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Personally, I think this is one of my favourite chapters, even though I'm probably not all that good at writing these types of things. This has been an idea for a chapter since I first started this story, so I'm kind of happy to unveil it, I guess.
> 
> Also, school has started back up for me, so we'll be moving back to (hopefully) consist updates every three weeks.
> 
> Season seven gets released this Friday! I'm so excited but so worried about what's going to happen. I've been avoiding most social media sites since SDCC when the first episode got aired, so I've avoided a good amount of spoilers (I did watch the trailer though). I don't think it'll be an issue, but please don't mention anything about season seven until the next time a chapter is uploaded. That gives people some time to watch the season and avoid any spoilers if they don't want them.

The day after his birthday, Lance walked into chemistry and did a double-take, faltering as he passed through the doorway. Most days, he would walk into the classroom with Hunk and Pidge. Today he’d had to stop at his locker and so they went ahead. Usually, when they all got to class, Keith was there before them. However, today, he saw only Hunk and Pidge hanging out around Pidge and Keith’s seats with Keith nowhere in sight. His mind drifted back to last week as he headed over to his friends.

“Hey, what’s up?” he greeted them. “Is Keith running late or something?”

“Hi Lance,” Hunk returned. “I guess he must be.”

Pidge shrugged. “This is my only class with him so I have no idea. What about you, Lance? Don’t you have homeroom with him?”

“Uh, yeah. I mean, I do, but it’s not like I go everyday. I didn’t today,” Lance told them. “So, no, I haven’t seen him at all.”

“If you’re curious, maybe you should text him and ask,” Hunk suggested.

“Maybe I will,” Lance mussed. Heading over to his seat, he placed his bag down and retrieved his phone. As the screen illuminated, a notification popped up from Shiro in the group chat, which was made with the seven of them–Marco excluded–a few days prior for his birthday party. Unlocking his phone, he read the message.

_Group Participants:_   
_RiddleMaster (RM), MagickChef (MC), FireBird (FB), AspiringPilot (AP), Aliens, & SpacePrincess (SP)_

_AP: In case anyone was wondering, Keith is a bit sick today so he’s staying home_

_Aliens: that sucks_

_Aliens: hope he feels better soon_

_SP: I would stop by after school to help you look after him, but I have a student council meeting and then choir practice so I cannot today. Sorry Shiro._

_AP: It’s fine. He isn’t feeling too bad right now. I can handle it_

_SP: If you are certain._

_AP: Yes, I’m sure. Thank you anyway_

Closing the app, Lance put his phone back into his bag. Walking back over to his friends, he shared the news with them.

“Shiro texted the group chat and said Keith is sick,” he informed them.

“Oh,” Hunk exclaimed. “Is he okay?”

Lance nodded. “Yeah, Shiro said he’s doing fine.”

“Do you think it might be because of what happened yesterday?” Pidge wondered aloud. “You know, the pool incident.”

“Oh.” Lance’s face fell, guilt swimming around in his bright azure eyes. “That’s probable.”

“Maybe we should go stop by his house after school and bring him something to as a get better soon gift,” Hunk suggested.

“That sounds like a good idea, hunk,” Pidge told him.

“Yeah,” Lance agreed. “But what should we bring him?”

As they started to ponder the question, the bell rang and Ms. Pride called for everyone to sit down so she could start class. Agreeing the discussing the matter further after class, the three of them went to their desks and tried to pay attention to their teacher’s instructions.

~∞~

Shiro sprinted into Keith’s room, the door flying open as he responded to Keith’s distressed shouting of his name.

“You called,” Shiro panted.

“Shiro,” Keith groaned, face first in his pillow, causing Shiro to have to lean in to hear. “Ice’s melted.”

With the cut out words, it took Shiro a minute to register what he’d said. “Oh, I’ll go get you new one.” Grabbing the melted ice pack, he left the room.

“Hurry,” Keith muttered. After his plea, a broken whimper emanated from him.

Wincing, Shiro careened through the hall, down the stairs, and into the kitchen. Throwing the used ice pack into the freezer, he scrounged around for a frozen one. He grabbed it and ran back up the stairs and into Keith’s bedroom. Handing Keith the ice pack, he allowed him to place it wherever he needed it and back away into the doorway.

“Do you need anything else?” Shiro inquired, internally hoping he didn’t, a prickle of guilt residing alongside that hope.

“No,” Keith replied, voice strained.

“Okay,” he sighed in relief. “Call me if you need something else.” Despite his desire for a break, he wouldn’t deny his brother if he needed something while dealing with his moulting.

Leaving the room, he went to the living room and collapsed onto the couch, leaning his head back and sinking into cushions. As soon as he got comfortable, the doorbell rang. Groaning, he hefted himself up off the sofa and threw open the front door.

“What?” he demanded, disheveled and exhausted.

“Dude, you look like shit.”

Focusing on who was in front of him, he realised that it was Lance who’d spoken, Pidge and Hunk on either side of him.

“Oh, sorry about that. I’m just tired,” he explained.

“Nah, you’re good. We’ve all been there,” Pidge assured him.

“Is it Keith? Has he gotten worse since earlier?” Lance asked.

Shiro winced. “Kind of. He’s doing as well as he can be right now.”

“Well, we brought Keith a cupcake–dairy free–as a feel better gift,” Hunk informed him, drawing attention to the small container in his hand. “May we come in?”

Sending an uneasy glance over his shoulder, he nodded. “Sure. Come on in.” Opening the door to allow them to enter, he stepped out of the doorway. Bringing them to the living room, he gestured for them to sit down. “It was considerate of you to bring Keith a cupcake while he’s sick. However, he hasn’t had much of an appetite so I’ll put it in the kitchen for him to eat later, okay?”

“Alright.” Hunk handed the container over. “Make sure he does eat something, even if he claims not to be hungry.”

Shiro nodded as he took the container. “Yeah, I know. He’s always like that when he’s sick,” he replied, talking as he went into the kitchen and returned.

“What does he have?” Pidge asked as Shiro plopped down on a chair beside the couch.

“Oh, it’s just a fever.” His head leaned back and he closed his eyes, glad to have a moment of rest.

“Did the incident yesterday cause it?” Lance fretted.

Shrugging, Shiro sighed. “I don’t know.” Eyes opening to slits, he regarded the guilty expression Lance wore. “I wouldn’t worry too much about why he’s sick. We just need to focus on getting him back to full health again.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Lance exhaled.

Before anyone else could say anything, a muffled shriek of undiluted agony permeated the air. Everyone stiffened, staring at each other, tension filling the room until it was thick enough to cut through with a butter knife. As the sounded faded, a quiet choked sob floated down from upstairs.

“Shiro,” Keith called out, voice hoarse and barely audible.

Dragging himself out of the chair, he gave the other an apologetic glance. “Excuse me,” he requested, heading up the stairs.

“Yeah, of course,” Pidge squeaked out, the only one of them seeming able to speak at the moment. They all exchanged uneasy and worried glances.

Walking upstairs, Shiro moved at a rapid pace down the hallway towards Keith’s room. Opening the door, a wave consisting of the scent of fresh ashes washed over him, causing him to burst into a light coughing fit. The scent was made worse with it mixing with the burning smell already consuming the enclosed space.

Recovering from the coughing fit after a moment, he eyed his sibling worriedly. “What do you need?” he inquired.

“I need–” His voice broke as he let out a cry of pain.

As Shiro watched, one feather–attached to his wing which had slid over the side of the bed and peeked out from under the covers–shivered and turned to ash, the particles fluttering to the floor in a graceful dance that sent shivers down Shiro’s spine. Even though he went through a similar experience–the moulting of his own hawk wings–for him, it was never painful and did not leave him bedridden. In addition, while he was also stuck at home due to being unable to hide his wings while moulting, his moulting lasted a few days, whereas Keith’s lasted from one to two weeks. Not to mention, Keith went through his moulting four times a year–once per season–where Shiro had his annually during the summer months.

“I need,” Keith restarted. “Tonic.”

Shiro understood what his brother was referring. Their local hybrid supply store sod a special drink that helped ease the pain of phoenix moulting. He always kept it in the cabinet above the stove. “Yeah, I’ll go get you some,” he promised.

Exiting the room and closing the door, he returned downstairs. On his way into the kitchen, the guests in the living room stopped him.

“Hey, is Keith okay?” Hunk wondered.

Shiro nodded, hoping to avoid getting dragged into a conversation if he stayed silent. Yet, as he took a step in the direction of the kitchen, Pidge sniffed the air and stopped him again.

“Why, does it smell like–” They took another sniff– “Like something got burned?”

“Oh, that.” He quickly thought up a lie. “I–uh–burnt some food earlier while making lunch. I guess I didn’t air the house out as well as I though.”

“Okay.”

Sighing in relief at them not questioning his response further, he slipped away into the kitchen. Approaching the stove, he threw open the cabinet suspended above it and scanned its contents. However, he met with frustration and panic at the absence of the tonic.

“Shit,” he cursed, slamming the cabinet door closed. Returning to the living room, he was met with concerned expressions–minus Lance since he had yet to recover from Keith’s earlier outburst.

“Is something wrong?” Pidge asked.

Shiro ran his fingers through his short hair and huffed. “No. Yes. We’ve run out of Keith’s medicine,” he informed them. Mind running over what to do, he pulled out his phone and unlocked it. “I can call Allura. Wait, no, she’s at work.” He growled and put his phone back.

“What do you need Allura for?” Hunk inquired.

“I need someone to watch over Keith while I run to the store for more medicine. I can’t leave him home alone,” he explained. “But I don’t know who else to go to.”

“We could watch after him,” Lance offered, the first words he’d spoken since Shiro ran upstairs.

Shiro hesitated, debating his options. “I suppose if you don’t mind...”

“We don’t,” Hunk said, Pidge and Lance nodding in agreement.

Once again, he hesitated, uncertain if he was making the wisest decision. However, his hesitation broke as another loud and pained sound floated down from Keith’s room. Shocked into motion, Shiro grabbed his keys and wallet before racing to the door. “I’ll be back soon,” he called, slamming the door behind him.

~∞~

As soon as the door closed, the house delved into silence, Keith breaking it every so often, pained noise originating from his room and echoing throughout the house.

“Should one of us go check on him?” Hunk wondered.

Pidge shrugged. “I don’t know. What I do know is that no fever causes the amount of sheer agony he appears to be in at the moment.”

“Are you implying Shiro lied to us?” Hunk gasped. “Are you saying he’s a liar?”

“Well, I’m not calling him a truther,” Pidge stated, crossing their arms over their chest.

“How dare you,” Hunk protested. “Shiro is our friend!”

Pidge shot to their feet, golden flames blazing in their eyes. “You know as well as anyone in this friend group the amount of secrets kept between us all! Don’t you dare pretend anyone in this group is telling anyone the full truth, is not hiding anything from the rest, or is not capable of lying to everyone else!”

Hunk opened his mouth to oppose their statement but faltered, seeing the truth behind their words. As they fell into silence–Pidge standing over them, breathing ragged and heavy–they once again remembered Keith’s cries of agony as they permeated the air.

Silent as a ghost, Lance stood up and walked over to the stairs, intent on going to check in on his friend.

“Where are you going?” Pidge asked.

Lance halted mid step, one foot on the step above the other. “Isn’t it obvious?” He gave them a side-glance. “He’s in pain. I’m not going to let a friend continue to suffer alone.” Continuing up the stairs, he walked down the hall to Keith’s room. Outside the door, he hesitated before tentatively knocking.

“Hey Keith, it’s Lance. May I come in?” he requested. No response came, quiet whimpers the only nose which answered him. Steeling his nerve, he twisted the doorknob and creaked open the door. A wave of stale air rushed out to greet him, carrying the unmistakable scent of ash. He coughed as the smell attacked his lungs. “Keith? Are you–” He broke off to let out a raspy cough. “Are you okay? Damn, how can you stay in here with the smell of burned food everywhere?”

“Shiro?” Keith mumbled, voice brittle and hoarse, words muffled since his face was pressed into a pillow.

Lance blinked and looked over at the form bundled up on the bed underneath some blankets. “Uh, no. It’s me, Lance.”

“You have the medicine?” he asked, not seeming to have heard Lance, sounding desperate.

Entering the room and closing the door behind him, Lance shook his head, also going over to sit down on the small stool next to the bed. “No, I don’t. Shiro had to run to the store to get some more,” he explained.

“It’s hot,” the sick fifteen year old complained.

“Yeah, it is,” Lance agreed. He glanced down at the blankets piled on top of Keith and frowned. “Maybe we should remove some of these blankets. It might help you cool down somewhat,” he suggested, tugging lightly at the blankets.

The minute the blankets even threatened to move, a pale hand shot out from underneath them and grabbed Lance’s wrist, shocking him with the speed at which it did so. “No,” Keith protested. “Don’t. Can’t...see...them.”

A bewildered look crossed Lance’s face. “What? See what?” Shaking his head, he grabbed at the blankets. “Whatever. If we take these off, you’ll feel better.” Ignoring Keith’s whined protests and the hand still holding onto his wrist, he ripped off the blankets and discarded them on the floor. His eyes fixated on the sight before him, widening with disbelief. Well, at least he now knew why the room smelt like ash.

Now exposed, Keith groaned and shifted onto his side, releasing his grip on Lance, his iridescent red wings folding closer to his body in an attempt to make themselves smaller and less noticeable, at which they failed. “No, don’t look at them,” Keith complained, eyes squeezed shut.

Lance couldn’t react, frozen in place at the realisation that Pidge was right from the beginning. Of everything he’d expected, it certainly wasn’t this. While Pidge had made no secret out of their suspicions, Lance found the shock unavoidable. However, he was prevented from further dwelling on his newfound knowledge when let out an agonised cry and curled up further on the bed, starting to claw at the sheets underneath his hands. Before Lance’s eyes, a feather on one of Keith’s wings trembled and fell off, disintegrating into ash, joining the other piles scattered on and around the bed. After a moment, Keith’s body relaxed a smidge, a minimal amount of tension leaving as the pain faded to what Lance assumed was a more tolerable level.

“I–uh–wow. Is there anything I can do to help you?” Lance wondered, uncertain of what to do in the situation he’d found himself in. As the silence dragged on, Keith unable to answer due to his ragged breathlessness, Lance began to debate whether it would be better for him to leave. Standing up, he started towards the door.

“Wait,” Keith gasped out. Pausing, Lance turned around to look at the other. “Please stay.”

“I don’t know. Wouldn’t it be better for me to go?” Lance asked, drifting closer to the door.

“No,” Keith protested, stopping him once more. “Please. Shiro...leaves...alone.” His eyes squeezed shut tighter and yet another cry left him–albeit, quieter than the ones before–as a second feather turned to ash before Lance’s eyes. “Don’t...alone...again.”

Although he was unable to form coherent sentences, Lance filled in the missing words to the best of his ability and gathered a general idea of what Keith was asking him, feeling sympathy for him. Sighing, he returned to the stool and sat back down. “Alright. If you want me to stay, I’ll stay,” Lance told him.

Keith made a content hum, wings unfurling from they had previously been pressed against his back, relaxing further. Lance sat there, silent and a bit uncomfortable as he didn’t know what to do.

“Is there anything–anything I can do to help other than just sitting here?” he asked, trying to be helpful and not seem bored.

“Talking helps,” Keith muttered, rolling over back onto his stomach, head returning to the pillow even though he twisted his neck so he continued to face Lance despite his eyes remaining closed.

“What should I talk about?” Lance inquired. Keith didn’t give him an answer, leaving him to decide upon a topic on his own. After a moment, he settled on discussing his family–an easy topic for the most part–and seeing where it went. “Well, my family is something I can talk a lot about. I guess I’ll start with them...”

~∞~

Shiro resisted the urge to fly home from the store, instead forcing himself to deal with speed limits and slow drivers. His skin itched with the need to get home and make sure everything was okay. The added fact of whom he’d had to leave at the house to make certain nothing bad happened to Keith did not help his urgency whatsoever, increasing his worry as each second ticked closer to potential disaster. While he had never asked any of the three about their views on hybrids, he hoped nothing would prompt him finding out. Far too many people believed hybrids were awful creatures who didn’t deserve rights and he would rather not have to risk the chance that the others agreed with that assessment.

He exhaled as the house entered his field of vision, relaxing further as he pulled into the driveway. Grabbing the unmarked box filled with the special Cosmic Sunset tonics for Keith, he rushed into the house.

Flying through the living room, he didn’t bother to react to Pidge and Hunk–who were watching some tv show and sitting on the couch–as they made startled gasps due to his sudden appearance. Dashing into the kitchen, he set the box down and tore it open, picking a bottle at random. He didn’t bother to waste time with putting the rest of the bottles in the cupboard, too fixated on his goal to bother with it. As he stepped back into the living room, paying more attention this time, he froze at seeing only two people in the room.

“Where’s Lance?” he inquired.

Pidge shrugged. “He’s been upstairs since you left. Haven’t seen him since.”

“Yeah, he went to check on Keith and never came back down here,” Hunk added.

Shiro almost dropped the delicate glass bottle he held. “What?”

“Yep, Lance and Keith are both upstairs and we haven’t seen either of them at all,” Pidge reiterated, turning back to the tv.

Not waiting to say anything else, Shiro took off upstairs, making sure to keep a strong hold on the bottle. Sprinting down the hall, he skidded to a stop in front of the closed bedroom door. Catching his breath, he edged open the door and peeked inside.

There, he saw Lance talking animatedly, his arms gesturing wildly as he spoke to Keith, who was stretched out across the bed, blanket less–both seeming content and relaxed, even though Shiro was aware of the pain Keith was in and Lance appeared to be ranting about something.

Pushing the door open further, it squealed in protest, startling the two people inside of the room, Lance pausing mid-sentence.

“Uh, I’m back,” Shiro stated.

Lance turned and glanced at Shiro over his shoulder. “Oh, hi Shiro,” he greeted. Standing up, he started towards the door. “I’ll be off then. Bye Keith. Shiro.” Brushing past the latter, he slipped into the hallway.

After Lance left, Shiro handed the tonic to Keith. “Here you go.” As soon as the bottle left his hands, he took off after Lance.

“Lance, wait up,” he called out.

The other halted in his tracks but didn’t turn around to meet his gaze. “What’s up, Shiro?”

“Hey, about what you saw, I don’t your opinion on us is, but please don’t tell anyone,” Shiro implored. “Regardless of your stance on the matter, I–we can’t afford to leave Arus. Please–”

Lance cut him off. “It’s fine, Shiro. I’m not going to tell anyone. You’ve got my word on that,” he assured. “I understand.”

For a moment, Shiro didn’t know how to reply, Lance’s reaction stunning him. After a bit, he regained his voice. “Th–thank you, Lance,” he said. “You have no idea how important that is to me. Thank you.” A small whimper escaped Keith’s room and he bid Lance farewell, making sure to thank him once more before whirling around back down the hall.

As he walked away, he could’ve sworn he heard Lance mutter something.

“Trust me, I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Constructive criticism and feedback is welcome


	12. The One Time He was Late

“Okay, so, we know Pidge’s memory loss is somehow connected to Allura. The only question is how,” Lance mused, sprawled out across Hunk’s bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Hunk nodded from the chair he currently occupied. “Yep, that’s the issue we have with this. How does it all fit together?”

Lance’s head turned so he was looking at him. “You said you’re certain Allura isn’t a magick user, right?”

Once again, Hunk nodded. “Yeah, I’m certain. If she was, I would’ve been able to break the spell using those peanut butter cookie.” He paused for a minute. “In addition, if she were more powerful than me, I wouldn’t have been able to break it at all in the first place. Plus, we do have to factor in why Pidge even has a memory of meeting Allura. You’d think if she were using magick, Allura would’ve wiped all of Pidge’s memories of what happened.”

“Okay.” Sighing in frustrated at the situation they were working with, Lance refocused back on the ceiling, finding that watching the spinning fan helped him think. “This is proving to be much more difficult and complicated than I thought it would be.”

Hunk hummed in agreement. His eyes travelled over to the clock on the bedside table. “Hey, don’t you usually head over to Keith’s house at four o’clock?”

Frowning, Lance gave his friend a quick side-glance. “Yeah, I do,” he confirmed. “Why are you asking?”

“Well, it’s almost five o’clock right now,” Hunk answered. “And you came over here at three.”

His eyes went wide. “Shit,” he swore, eyes shooting over to glance at the clock. Sitting up, he hopped off the bed and scrambled around the room to collect all his belongs. “I can’t believe I let the time slip away from me.”

Hunk watched him in silence for a moment. “Would you mind if I asked you why you go over there every day?” At his question, Lance froze and met his gaze. “I mean, it’s just you never talk about anything that happens when you go to his house. You don’t even tell me and we’re best friends–at least, I hope we are,” he added with some hesitation.

Lance’s eyebrow rose in disbelief. “Of course we’re best friends, Hunk,” he assured. “I don’t talk about it because it’s uneventful. That’s all.” Throwing his literature book into his bag, he slung it over his shoulder.

“What do you even do when you go over?” Hunk wondered.

Shrugging, Lance headed for the open doorway. “We just talk. Nothing eventful,” he reiterated. Although he knew Hunk would be accepting towards other hybrids, he had made a promise to Shiro and he refused to break it. “Now, I really should be going. See you tomorrow,” he called, sprinting down the hallway after another quick glance at the clock.

From his room, Hunk chuckled a little at his rush to leave. “Bye Lance,” he returned.

With a hurried bye to Hunk’s moms, he threw open the front door and put on an extra burst of speed as he ran to his car. Shoving his bag into the passenger's seat, he cursed once he realised what he’d forgotten. Hopping back out of the car, he flew back to the house and closed the front door, which he had left open, and then hurried back to his car. Starting the engine, he allowed himself a moment to calm down his beating heart and then pulled out of the driveway and began making his way to Keith’s house.

Ever since Wednesday, Lance had made it his mission to visit Keith every day once school ended until he was better. Over the weekend, he’d decided to continue that pattern, having adapted it into his regular schedule. He couldn’t explain the obligation he felt to do as such. There were so many things which could’ve been the reason. Perhaps it was Keith’s plea that first day to not leave him alone like everyone did. Maybe it was how his pain always seemed to lessen whenever Lance was around, as Shiro had attested to multiple times. It might also be the strange need to care for and protect Keith, the way his heart ached when he heard Keith’s cries of pain.

Brushing away that line of thought, Lance focused on the road, well aware he was running an hour late. The specific reasons for his actions were unimportant in the grand scheme of things, right? He was just doing what any friend would do. There was nothing more to it. He sighed as he tried to convince himself despite knowing it ultimately was pointless.

Arriving at Keith and Shiro’s house, he parked in the driveway and got out of his car. Much calmer than his hasty leave from Hunk’s house, he walked up to the door and knocked on the door to announce his presence to the people inside. Not a minute after he did so, the door swung open, Shiro greeting him with an exhausted and relieved smile, the hawk-like wings behind him looking ruffled and drooping to the floor. Before either of them could say anything, a loud and broken cry of agony echoed through the house, causing them both to flinched. The sound also caused Shiro’s wings to puff up in either fear or worry or some mix of both and Lance’s eyes drifted to the upstairs landing–an open area at the top of the stairs with a railing keeping it from being an open drop off.

“Come in on,” Shiro invited, expression solemn, opening the door wider and stepping aside to allow him past.

“Hi. Thanks, Shiro,” Lance returned. Sending Shiro a weak smile, he brushed past him and entered the house.

As he slid past Shiro, he eyed the other’s large hawk wings. Once it had become apparent that Lance would be visiting everyday and since he’d so far proved himself trustworthy, Shiro revealed his own hybrid nature, claiming he always felt better having his wings out after a long day at school. To be honest, Shiro’s wings–coupled with his muscular build–made him appear intimidating and caused Lance to be a bit wary around him. If Shiro took notice of this, Lance couldn’t say.

“Keith’s upstairs in his room as usual,” Shiro informed him. He flashed a concerned glance in the direction of Keith’s room.

At the action, Lance hesitated from continuing on his path towards the stairs. “Is something wrong?” he inquired, unable and unwilling to keep the worry out of his voice.

Frowning, Shiro’s gaze settled back on him. “For the last hour or so, it’s been really bad. More so than it should be.” He cut off at a second pained cry rang out, his wings wrapping around to hug his sides comfortingly as he sent another wary glance upstairs, continuing only once it stopped. “He’s started on the second stage of his moulting, which is the growing of new feathers. Usually, it is less painful than the first stage, but for the past hour it’s been on level with the pain of the first stage. I can’t even give him his medicine to help with the pain since he keeps refusing it everytime I try to give it to him.” His frown deepening, Shiro let out a small sigh of frustration.

At the revelation, Lance’s mouth twisted into a frown identical to Shiro’s. Uncertain of how to respond, he stood there, thinking up a solution. Then, it came to him. “You remember all those times that you told me how Keith seems to feel better when I’m around?” Shiro nodded in confirmation. “Well, maybe he’ll accept the medicine if I give it to him.”

“I suppose it’s the only option we have. Do whatever you can,” he urged, his wings pressing closer to his body. “I’m really worried about him.”

Lance gave him the most reassuring smile he could muster–not doing much to help Shiro if the other’s expression told him anything. “I’ll try my best,” he assured him. “By the way, where do you keep his medicine?”

“Oh, there is a bottle in his room that I took up earlier,” he answered. “I left it in hopes that he might get tempted to drink it.”

“Alright, I’ll head up then,” Lance announced.

Surging forward, he headed towards the stairs. As he went upstairs, he caught sight of Shiro out of the corner of his eye. The other watched him, reaching a hand towards his wings, soothing the feathers back down from when they had puffed up earlier. After a moment, Shiro turned away and went into the kitchen.

Walking down the hall to Keith’s room, Lance knocked and called out to Keith, letting him know he was entering–a quiet whimper being Keith’s response–to be respectful towards the other boy’s space. Easing the door open, he paused in the doorway to adjust to the heatwave which consumed the bedroom before entering the room fully and closing the door behind himself.

Inside the bedroom, Keith sat up on the bed, leaning heavily against the wall his bed was pushed up against, each of his hands gripping a bunched up portion of blanket, knees pressed close to his chest. Both of his eyes were squeezed shut and his panting appeared laborious. Behind him, his wings–for the most part, bare aside from a couple new feathers–hung low as though it took more energy than he had to move them in any capacity.

“Hey Keith,” he greeted, lingering at the entrance, leaning back against the door. “How are you today?”

Without opening his eyes or moving any other part of his body aside from his mouth, Keith muttered, “you’re late.”

At the sound of Keith’s voice, Lance’s heart splintered. The other boy’s voice was scratchy and strained. Leaving the door, Lance walked over to the bed and sat down on the stool that Shiro left in here for him. “I know. I’m sorry,” he apologised. “I went over to Hunk’s place and lost track of the time.”

“You always come at four,” Keith stated, his voice not rising above its previous volume.

“Yes, and I’m sorry,” Lance apologised again.

“It hurt so much,” Keith said, once again showing no sign that he heard Lance’s words. Despite how the pain seemed to have ebbed away for the moment, his body showed no signs of relaxing, remaining as tense as ever.

Frowning, Lance leaned over and reached out towards him, prying his hand out of its deathgrip on the blanket and turning it palm up, holding it in his left hand while he used his right hand to brush over the red crescent moon indentions in Keith’s hand. “Hey Keith, look at me.” The other boy refused to move or react. “Please,” Lance begged.

At his plea, Keith gave him. Turning his head to face Lance, his eyes opened to slits, watching Lance cradle his hand in his own hands. “Lance?” he breathed, voice and body shaking.

Giving Keith a soft smile, Lance stared into his eyes. “Listen, I know that I was late today and I’m so sorry that it happened. It won’t happen again,” he promised. “Will you forgive me?”

For a long while, Keith watched him, gaze unflinching even though his eyes were almost closed. In that prolonged stretch of time, Lance’s throat constricted and he didn’t dare to breathe, heart pounding in his chest as he waited for an answer. Then, the tiniest movement, the slight nod of Keith’s head. A wave of air flooded out from his lungs and his breathing resumed.

“Thank you,” Lance told him, a smile upon his face, squeezing Keith’s hand as an extra means of conveying his gratitude–him doing so in a gentle manner so as to not cause Keith any extra pain. A piece of the weight on Lance’s shoulders vanished. “You never answered my question, by the way. How are you? How’s the pain?”

Keith’s entire body relaxed and some of the tension seemed to have slipped away. His wings shuttered–whether from being cold or otherwise, Lance didn’t know. “It was...bad. It’s better now. I’m okay.” All of his statements were kept short, him unable to do any better due to his strained voice and–what Lance could assume to be the case–his sore throat.

“Do you want your medicine?” he offered, searching around the room with his gaze for where Shiro had left it. Locating it on the bedside table, he used his right hand to grab it so he didn’t have to let go of Keith’s hand.

“Please,” Keith replied.

Keith’s answer caused a happy grin to spread across Lance’s face, pleased that he had accepted it due to what Shiro had told him about the situation earlier. Placing the bottle between his legs, he struggled to twist the cap off with one hand; he refused to let go of Keith’s. After a minute, he held up to cap victoriously and discarded it on the bedside table. Grabbing the bottle, he handed it over to Keith, who accepted it with appreciation. Due to the way his hands shook, he had to pull his hand out of Lance’s grasp to bring the bottle to his lips and down the multi coloured liquid without pause. With the bottle empty, Keith discarded it on the bed next to his feet. Instantly, he relaxed, peeling himself away from the wall and lying down on his side, facing Lance, still curled up.

“Feeling better?” Lance inquired once Keith settled in his new position. A quick nod was his answer. Lance couldn’t stop the grin on his face from widening.

However, the grin died as soon as a wave of pain washed over Keith, caused him to yelp, his hands returning to grabbing at the blankets with a death grip. His entire body shook with agony. After a minute, the wave passed and he let out a shaky breath. “‘M fine,” he stated, though Lance didn’t know who he was trying to reassure or convince.

Regardless, he couldn’t stop himself from asking to make certain. “Are you sure?” Keith gave a small nod–the most common means of communication he seemed to be using–his heaving with labored breathing. Reaching out, Lance once again took one of Keith’s hands into his own, massaging the skin on the back of his hand in an attempt to help comfort him. “Would you like for me to talk? Like we’ve been doing everyday.” Another subtle nod from the other boy. “Okay, give me a minute to figure out what to talk about today.”

This was how most of the time passed during Lance’s visits. Keith would listen, silent aside from whenever the pain flared up–which Lance had to force himself to talk through–and Lance would talk about whatever came to mind, paying far more attention to Keith and far less attention on what he was saying than he should. This had led to a couple embarrassing moments for Lance when he realised he told Keith something he’d never before vocalised to anyone.

He’d started with his family.

For the most part, it was a safe topic,at least it was until he started getting into the things that irritated him about his family. Don’t mistake him, he loves his family and cares about them, but there are always the little things that annoy you about someone that never go away. Things such as how Marco would sneak out to meet up with friends of his and always ask for Lance to cover for him. How he sometimes felt as though his mother saw him only as a babysitter for his younger siblings since he was the more responsible of the two older siblings and he never verbally complained about doing it. Veronica’s tendencies to mess with Luis and chase him around the house. Luis and his habit of interrupting and side-tracking conversations. He loves his family, but sometimes they drive him crazy.

This topic lasted for the first two days, Wednesday and Thursday.

Next, he’d turned to his friends, Hunk and Pidge for the most part. It was easy to go on and on about how intelligent and determined they each were, how both of them seemed to fly through their lessons and schoolwork, how they knew where they wanted to go in life, ambitions and goals all sorted and planned out. He spoke of how different he was, how his goals were few and seemed so far out of his reach, how foolish and impossible they all seemed. Once he’d realised what all he’d confessed–things he’d never even told Hunk–his eyes had flown wide and he’d shut his mouth. In his silence, Keith had spoken up–a rarity over these past few days–and told him how valid his goals were and that he could do anything if he set his mind to it. After that, Lance hadn’t been able to stop himself from stammering a goodbye and fleeing the house, face aflame.

The day after that, he’d chosen to stay away from such personal topics. He’d rambled on about the sky and stars and planets. Space was always a safe spot for him, something that he could find comfort in regardless of the circumstances. As he’d talked, Keith had managed a few content smiles–something that had never happened with any of the other topics–and seemed invested with the topic, even if he couldn’t find the voice to say anything or hold a proper conversation with Lance.

Now, Lance settled on talking about school, it being the first topic he could deem as safe which came to mind. He discussed all the stuff Keith had missed while stuck at home, all the little humourous events which had occurred over the last couple of days. Though, some things he did have to leave out, such as anything related to Pidge’s memory loss and his and Hunk’s mission to figure out what happened. In addition, he avoided any mention of he and the other two as being hybrids, unwilling to share that information even though he knew Keith wouldn’t mind. It wasn’t his place to share stuff like that.

“You know,” Lance sighed, having finished up telling Keith about a chemistry lab gone wrong on Friday. “It’s been weird without you.” He rested his elbow on his leg and placed his head atop the corresponding hand, his other hand still holding onto Keith despite having multiple red marks from when Keith’s nails dug into his skin as waves of pain passed through his body.

Blinking, Keith’s glazed over indigo eyes met his own azure ones, confusion evident on his face.

“I mean at school,” he clarified. “It’s been odd that you’re not there. I keep expecting you to be there, watching us with those dark, mysterious, brilliant eyes of yours, acting as if you’re a spectator to everything that’s going on around you until you get a direct invitation to be involved. I’d not realised how much I’d adapted to your being there until suddenly you’re not. I miss being able to see you at school every day.” It took a minute for his brain to fully process everything he said. Once it did, his cheeks flushed bright scarlet. Scrambling to his feet, he stumbled backwards towards the door, stuttering out some excuse about needing to go. “S-sorry, I have to-I have to go. Sorry.” He fumbled around behind him for the doorknob.

“Wait,” Keith begged, voice cracking as he pushed it past its current limits. He attempted to drag himself off the bed, but ended up falling to the floor as his legs buckled underneath him.

Despite the overwhelming desire to flee, the twinge of his heart at seeing Keith unable to stand and wanting to help overpowered that desire. Rushing to Keith’s side, Lance crouched down and helped lift Keith up. “You shouldn’t strain yourself,” he chided. “You need to rest.” Guiding Keith back onto the bed, he got him to lie back down. Pulling away, Lance headed back to the door.

“Are you gonna come back tomorrow?”

Keith’s question caused Lance to freeze, the door half open. Looking over at the other, he found Keith’s eyes wide open, watching him. Forcing a smile on his face, he nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be back tomorrow.” That answered seemed to make Keith content and his eyes closed.

Slipping out of the room and quietly closing the door behind him, he hurried down the hall and flew into the bathroom, turning on the light and throwing the door closed. Groaning, his back hit the door and he slid down to the floor. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and the sound filled his ears. Why did he tell Keith that he thought his eyes were ‘dark, mysterious, and brilliant’? His cheeks burned red with the memory of what he’d said, mortification increasing by the minute.

On top of that, this was the second time he’d run out on Keith due to his own inability to control his mouth. By the sea, Keith must think him an idiot after everything.

Taking long deep breaths, Lance started working on calming his rapid heartbeat. He could feel the sweat soaking into his shirt and clinging to his brow due to the sweltering heat of Keith’s room.

Standing up, he went over to the sink. Turning the faucet on, he splashed his face with cold water, unable to stop a sigh of relief at the cool temperature of the water. Once he was satisfied, he turned the faucet off and stepped back, examining his reflection. The flush on his face had died and for that, he was thankful. However, now all he could focus on was his sweat soaked shirt. He frowned at the reflection of the damp piece of clothing, deciding right then that all he wanted was to go home, take a shower, and get some clean clothes on.

Opening the door and turning the lights off, he stepped out of the bathroom into the hallway. Glancing down the hall in the direction of Keith’s room then looking the other way towards the stairs, he debates returning to Keith and apologise for his actions. Maybe he could–

No! Shaking his head to rid himself of the thought, he heads towards the stairs. Keith wasn’t in the right mind, he rationalised. Doing that wouldn’t be fair to anyone. At least, not right now. Maybe he could consider that idea further once Keith was no longer sick.

Descending the staircase, Lance paused at the bottom to search his pockets for his car keys. As he did so, the delicious and inviting scent of the steak Shiro was cooking for dinner filled his nose.

Acquiring his keys, he headed towards the front door, pausing at the entryway to the kitchen to tell Shiro he was leaving. Inside, he could see Allura sitting at the table, talking to Shiro, who was busy keeping an eye on the food.

“Hey, I’m heading home,” Lance announced during a moment when no one else was talking. Both Shiro and Allura turned towards him.

“Oh, Lance, would you like to stay for dinner?” Shiro offered before he could leave.

Lance hesitated. He really wanted to get out of his sweaty clothes, but the food smelled delicious. In the moment that he paused, his stomach let out a loud growl. Ducking his head in embarrassment, he chose to accept the offer. “That would be nice. If you don’t mind, of course.”

Shiro smiled. “Wouldn’t have offered if I did. Dinner will be ready in a minute. You can take a seat at the table if you want.” The oven timer went off and Shiro hurried to put on a pair of oven mitts and pull out a pan.

“Okay. Thank you,” Lance told him. Walking over, he sat down diagonally from Allura. The table was small, having enough room to seat four people and no more; though, that did make it seem more welcoming.

“Good evening, Lance,” Allura greeted. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” he answered, a smile on his face. “How about you?”

“I’m good as well,” she answered. “How is Keith doing? Did you manage to get him to take his medicine?”

He nodded. “He’s doing well. I did get him to take his medicine thankfully.”

Their small talk cut off when Shiro placed down plates of food in front of them. Lance’s mouth watered at the smell, stomach growling louder than before, but he waited for Shiro to sit down with his own plate.

Taking a seat beside Allura, he took her hand once she offered it to him, bringing it to his mouth and placing a kiss on the back of her hand. Releasing his hold, Shiro picked up his fork, saying, “let’s eat.”

While they ate, the table was mostly quiet, which unnerved Lance somewhat. At home, the dinner table was alight with noise and talking, multiple conversations all around, tangents popping up faster than one could keep track of. This silence was different.

Not long after they started eating, they all paused at the sound of the creaking of the stairs. A moment later, Keith entered the kitchen, a long grey blanket wrapped around him, causing him to stumbled over his own feet every so often. Walking to the counter, he grabbed a plate and began putting food onto it.

Shiro cleared his throat. “Keith, I would’ve brought food to you in a couple minutes. You didn’t need to come down here when you should be resting.”

“I’m fine,” Keith snapped in response. Right after he stated as much, his hands faltered in their task–causing him to drop his fork back onto the plate with the steak–and his eyes squeezed shut, his entire body shuttering, mouth clamped shut with determination to remain silent.

Putting down his utensils, Shiro stood up from the table and walked over to his brother’s side, placing his hand gently atop the young boy’s shoulder. “Stop, Keith. You should go back upstairs and rest,” he urged. “I’ll bring some food up to you.”

“I don’t want to. I’m fine,” he insisted, voice betraying that statement with the way it shook. Continuing with his task, he remained stubborn.

Sighing in resignation, he pulled his hand away. “Alright, suit yourself. There’s no point in trying to reason with you when you want to be stubborn.” With that, he returned to his seat and went back to eating his dinner.

Allura and Lance met each other’s gaze, both of them uncertain if they should say anything, the only sound being the scrapping of forks on plates. After a moment, they reluctantly resumed eating. Keith joined them at the table once he had taken all the food he wanted, taking the empty seat across from Allura and next to Lance. He kept his eyes fixated on his plate, refusing to look anywhere else. Their meal continued in silence, this one filled with tension, disrupted every couple of minutes with the sound of Keith’s fork clattering on to his plate as waves of pain washed over him throughout.

Once everyone finished eating, Shiro stood up and cleared the table, taking everyone’s plates. Carrying them over to the sink, he began rinsing them off and then loading them into the dishwasher.

While Shiro cleaned up from dinner and Allura helped him, Lance walked with Keith back up to his room, keeping an eye on him to make sure he was okay. Despite having insisted he was fine multiple times, Lance could see the way Keith’s legs shook with each step and how, on occasion, he would stumbled forward, catching himself right before Lance could reach out to help steady him.

Entering Keith’s bedroom, Lance hovered next to the door while Keith sat down on his bed. Once he settled, Lance decided that was the best time to speak up.

“I wanted to apologise,” he started. “For leaving earlier.”

Keith turned away from him, seeing to get distracted with rearranging the pillow and blankets. “It’s fine. I understand.”

“Are you mad?” Lance wondered, wanting some reassurance.

“No,” he answered, shaking his head. “I’m not mad.”

Before Lance could begin to think of a response, his phone beeped to notify him of a notification. Fishing it out of his pocket, Lance sighed as he read the text from his mom.

“I’m sorry, but I really have to go this time,” he informed Keith. “My mom’s going to worry if I don’t get home soon.”

“Okay,” Keith said.

“See you tomorrow,” Lance told him with a wave as he then exited the room, closing the door behind him.

“Bye,” Keith echoed quietly from the bed.

Walking down the hallway towards the stairs, he sent a response to his mom, telling her that he was on his way. Going down the stairs, he stopped in the living room to thank Shiro for dinner.

“Thank you again for dinner,” he said.

“No problem,” Shiro replied, looking over at him. “It’s the least I could do to thank you for visiting Keith these past few days.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” Lance insisted. “I’m happy that I can do something to help him.”

“Regardless,” Shiro told him, “It’s still nice of you to do it.”

A small smile found its way onto Lance’s face at the slight praise. “Well, I’ve got to get going. Good night.”

“Good night, Lance,” Shiro and Allura echoed together.

“Sending them a last wave of farewell, he head out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Constructive criticism and commentaries are welcome


	13. The Words That He Forgot

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Keith groaned and rolled out of bed Thursday morning, slamming the off button on his alarm to stop its insistent beeping. While he’d started feeling better on Tuesday, Shiro forced him to stay home Wednesday as well. Although in most cases he wouldn’t be complaining since he rather disliked school, he knew he’d been absent long enough that his workload when he returned would be massive. In the long run, it would be better for him to suck it up and go to school.

Thinking back on the past week, his memories were wrapped in a cloud of fog, the tonic–which he used to dull the worst of the pain–applying its usual effects. However, he did remember a blurred and unfocused figure sometimes showing up and speaking in a low voice, but he couldn’t recall anything about who they were, what they did during their visits, or even what they said.

Pushing that all to the back of his mind for the moment, Keith focused on getting ready for school. A mild, warm pain spread across his back as he vanished his new, regrown wings for the technically first time. Compared to the past week, though, it wasn’t all that notable.

Leaving his room once he finished getting dressed and had his bag packed, he head downstairs into the kitchen, stopping to throw his bag onto the couch. Heating up some pancakes Shiro had made earlier, he devoured the meal in the same amount of time it took to acquire it. Over the last week, he hadn’t eaten much and it was now catching up to him.

Not long after he finished, Shiro appeared. “Are you ready to go back to school?” he asked him.

Keith nodded as he went over to the dishwasher to put away his plate. “I’m ready to be done with you hovering over me all the time like a concerned parent and forcing me to stay in bed all day.”

Shiro laughed. “I’m just looking after you. Someone has to. Otherwise, who knows what kind of trouble you’d end up in.”

“Whatever,” Keith huffed. “Can we get going already?”

“Yeah, come on.”

Grabbing their bags, they headed out to the car. Sitting down in the passenger’s seat, Keith plugged his headphones into his phone and turned on his music, staring out the window, zoning out to his surroundings for the drive.

\---

Keith sat down beside Shiro at the lunch table as usual. Starting to eat, he paused when Lance, Pidge, and Hunk came over to join them.

As he watched Lance’s eyes scanned over the table’s occupants, he noted that they settled on him. The azure blue irises shone with joy. “Keith, you’re back,” he exclaimed, a wide smile on his face.

“Yeah, I am,” Keith commented.

“How are you doing? You’re feeling better?” Pidge inquired, sitting down next to their brother.

He nodded. “I’m doing much better than before. I almost came back yesterday since I’d started feeling better Tuesday, but Shiro wouldn’t let me.”

At his statement, he saw Lance frown and send Shiro a questioning look. Glancing over at Shiro, he caught sight of something that resembled guilt on his brother’s face, causing him to squint suspiciously at his brother. In his head, he made a mental note to ask Shiro about it later. Turning back to Lance, he noticed the other had removed all traces of his reaction, face resuming its overjoyed appearance at seeing Keith back at school.

“It’s nice to have you back,” Lance told him, taking a seat beside him.

“Yeah,” Hunk chimed in, agreeing Lance’s statement. “It’s been weird with you gone for the past week. By the way, did you like the cupcake we brought you last Wednesday?”

Keith’s eyes clouded over with confusion for a moment. He didn’t remember that. Giving Shiro a quick side glance, he saw the other respond with a slight nod, confirming that it had happened. “Oh, yeah, it was good. Thanks,” he lied, unable to remember if he had even eaten it.

Hunk appeared pleased with his answer, unable to discern the fib, a grin materialising on his face. “I’m glad you liked it. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out since I’d never made pastries dairy-free before, so I’m happy that it wasn’t bad.”

“Oh, come on Hunk. Nothing you bake ever tastes bad,” Lance complimented. “You’re a brilliant baker.”

“Thank you, Lance,” Hunk told him, looking a bit flustered with the compliment.

Uncertain of what else to add to the conversation, Keith turned back to his food. Once he did, the main conversation moved away from him, for which he was grateful as he began eating his lunch. Although he attempted to follow the table’s conversation once he finished eating–having sated his hunger–he continued to get distracted, often catching Lance sending him the occasional subtle glance out of the corner of his eye. Something about them caused Keith to feel as though there was something important he should know. However, he chose to ignore it, deciding that he was being foolish and thinking too much into it.

At one point, while Lance was answering a question from Matt, his hand drifted over to Keith’s, which was resting on the chair. The movement went unnoticed until their hands brushed against each other. Startled, Keith yanked his hand away as though it had been struck with lightning, the action surprising him. Glancing over at Lance, he observed the other staring down at his own abandoned tan-skinned hand, having stopped speaking. As Keith watched, Lance’s whole face fell, mouth twisting into a frown, eyes draining as all traces of happiness fled from them. His azure eyes moved upwards to meet Keith’s own purple gaze.

Tearing his gaze away, Lance abruptly stood up, pushing his chair back with no much sudden force that it threatened to fall backwards. He then muttered something about needing to go to the bathroom and rushed out of the cafeteria. Not a minute afterwards, Hunk stood up and followed after him, not bothering with an explanation as to where he was going but all of them knowing regardless.

Keith scanned the people still at the table, searching for someone to explain to him what had just happened, confused on everything. However, everyone else seemed as confused as him. Wait, there. His eyes settled on Shiro, catching the leaving traces of another guilty expression on his brother’s face.

Taking mental note of that, he added the instance to the now growing list of things he had to talk to Shiro about regarding stuff that must have happened during his moulting.

\---

That evening, Keith sat on his bed, glaring at the pile of papers on his otherwise clean desk, which consisted of all the work he had missed. Even though he knew he should get started on it, he found that he couldn’t focus. Earlier, while in the car on the way home, he had asked Shiro about what happened at lunch. However, his brother refused to answer any of his questions. Due to this, he’d taken to staying in his room since he’d gotten home–minus the time it took for him to eat dinner–since he couldn’t look at Shiro while knowing that his brother was keeping what seemed like important secrets from him. For the past hour, he’d been trying to piece together the scattered and hazy memories that he did have from the last week. Unfortunately, he was at a loss, his memories too muddled to make out anything concrete.

Leaning back against the wall, ready to give up, he jumped at the sound of loud knocking on the front door. Getting up, he opened his bedroom door and slipped out into the hall, making his way to the area next to the stairs, from which he could oversee the living room and listen in on conversations. Lingering behind the wall, just out of view from anyone below, he willed his wings to vanish so they wouldn’t give him away. Then, he got comfortable and listened as Shiro answered the door.

“Hello? Lance?” his brother exclaimed, surprised. “What are you doing here so late?”

“I need to talk to you asap,” Lance answered. “Is Keith still awake?”

Shiro glanced over his shoulder at the upstairs landing–causing Keith to hold his breath in fear that he might spot him. After a moment, he turned back to Lance, shaking his head. “No, he went to bed an hour or so ago. Come on in,” he invited, stepping aside to allow Lance in.

They entered the living room and sat down, Lance claiming the sofa while Shiro took the chair angled to face the couch.

Lance took a deep, steadying breath. “Alright, what happened today?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Shiro responded.

“At lunch,” Lance clarified. “Sure, I didn’t mean to reach for his hand, but all this past week, whenever I’ve done it, he never pulled away. Not how he did today. He didn’t seem to understand anything that was going on; I did catch that confused look when Hunk asked about his thoughts on the cupcake he baked him. Also, you told me not to come over yesterday when, as Keith told us, he was feeling better.” His hand brushed through his hair on habit as he spoke. “I want to know what’s going on. What are you not telling me, Shiro?”

Shiro hesitated before sighing and asking, “are you sure you want to know?”

He nodded eagerly. “Yes, I want to know. Please.”

Leaning forwards, Shiro rested his elbows just above his knees, hands clasped together. “Okay, if you certain, but be warned that you may not like what I’m about to tell you.” Lance didn’t say anything, clearly wanting Shiro to continue. “Do you remember Keith’s medicine? That drink that fades from yellow to red? Well, as you know, its main purpose is to stop him from experiencing the full pain of his moulting. However, it has a few side effects.” He paused, his expression showing that he was debating between going on or not. “Most notably, it causes lapses in memory.”

After Shiro told him that, Lance stared at him for a long while, silent, mouth hanging open, frozen in place. Once the shock passed, he shot to his feet. “What?!” He took a deep breath as though to calm himself, but it didn’t help at all. “You mean to tell me that he doesn’t remember anything from this past week?” Shiro nodded in reluctance. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he exclaimed, now beginning to pace in front of the couch. “So he doesn’t remember anything that happened?! Nothing?! Well, isn’t that great!” He threw his arms up in exasperation. Then, something else occurred to him and whirled around to face Shiro, causing Shiro’s wings to puff up in fear. “Oh, and on top of that, you didn’t even bother to tell me this! You waited until I confronted you about it! You even went out of your way to call me and tell me not to come over yesterday so you could avoid having me find out about this!”

Shiro’s face filled with guilt, even as he tried to plead with Lance to lower his voice, his wings folding up close against his back, still puffed up. “I understand that you’re upset, but–”

“Oh, you understand that I’m upset?! You understand?! Do you?!” Lance cried out, chest heaving in frustration. “Does Keith even know about this?!”

“Please, Lance, lower your voice,” Shiro implored. “You’ll wake up Keith. He’ll hear you.”

“Let him hear,” Lance responded, gesturing upstairs. “I don’t care! Though, you seem to care about keeping secrets and leaving us in the dark!”

“Lance, I am doing what I think is best,” Shiro told him. “I’m trying to be rational.”

“What you thought was best?” Lance laughed at that. “Like how you leave your brother alone in his room while he deals with his moulting when he wants anything but that?” At Shiro surprised reaction, he went on. “Yeah, that first day, Keith told me that. How you always leave him alone. He asked me to stay, said talking actually helps him.” Stopping for air, he panted a bit. “Have you ever considered asking us about what we want or what is best for us? Maybe you should consider it.” Having voiced everything he wanted to say at the moment, he appeared to deflate and collapsed back down on the couch.

Shiro was shocked into silence at his words. After a couple minutes–of which were silent save for Lance’s laboured breathing–he spoke. “Lance, please,” he urged. “Give me the chance to explain.”

Unable to bother with more arguing, Lance nodded. “Okay, go for it.”

Taking a deep breath, Shiro began his explanation, both his wings and hands moving as he talked. “First of all, during Keith’s moulting, he is in a lot of pain, as I’m sure you know. This causes him to make some decision that are not all that wise. He never told me that talking is helpful for him.” Shiro took another deep breath. “The only things I can base my decisions on are my own experiences and what all I know. I didn’t want to tell him about your visits and everything that happened during his moulting because he needs time to fully recover and readjust before I tell him about that.”

Sighing, Lance nodded. “Alright, I can understand that.” Standing up, he stretched his arms. “Sorry about blowing up at you.”

“No, you don’t need to apologise. You had every right to be upset,” Shiro assured him. “I should have at least informed you of this decision.” He paused for a minute before asking, “are you okay?”

“Hmm?” Lance appeared confused at the question. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m going to head home since it’s pretty late. Goodnight,” he said, heading towards the front door.

“Goodnight Lance,” Shiro replied, watching Lance leave. Once the door slammed shut, he sighed and turned towards the stairs, making his way over to them.

While Keith was tempted to sit there and process everything that he’d overheard, he didn’t want Shiro to know that he’d been listening in on the conversation. Whirling around, he quietly sprinted down the hall to his bedroom.

Closing the door behind him, he leaned back against it and allowed himself to fall to the floor, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. Sitting there, he permitted his mind to go over everything he had heard.

Something happened during his moulting regarding Lance, and Shiro chose to keep it a secret from him and not tell Lance that he wasn’t telling Keith what happened. Though what happened was never stated outright, he understood the basics of the situation. Lance had visited Keith every day during his moulting–minus yesterday because of Shiro.

Wait. Keith eyes flew open in his realisation. That meant Lance had seen his wings–multiple times at that–and knew he was a hybrid. Thinking back to the exchange he overheard a few minutes ago, he realised that Shiro’s wings had been out in plain view. Did that mean that Lance also knew about Allura? Keith groaned. If Lance knew that Allura was a siren and connected that to Pidge’s memory loss–if he was aware of that in the first place–he could undo it and then more people would know about them being hybrids. What if he had already told other people? They’d have to move. He couldn’t deal with that again. Not after last time.

As the thoughts and fears and memories crowded in, taking control of his mind, his breathing turned laborious and his heart rate sped up. Feeling the beginnings of panic settling in, he tried to fight against the flood of worries. Bringing his legs up to his chest, he curled in on himself. Not a moment later, his wings appeared and wrapped themselves around him, dousing him in waves of heat as flames rolled through the feathers.

 _Stop. Stop. Stop._ His mind chanted.

He let out a whimper as he felt his chest constricting. Breaths came out in quiet pants and he felt tears prickle at the edge of his eyes, water welling up to cloud his vision.

_Stop. Stop. Stop._

More whimpers escaped him as he struggled to gasp for breath. It was too much. He couldn’t go through that again. That betrayal. The reason he stopped going to school in the first place. What he chose to avoid.

 _Stop it!_ His mind screamed.

He was shaking. It was all too much. He couldn’t. He couldn’t.

Curling in more so on himself, he felt the dampness of his pants as tears dripped onto them. The thought to go find Shiro was tempting. However, then Shiro would want to know what happened to cause this and, right now, he couldn’t bring himself to think of some believable lie.Therefore, he sat there, shaking in the embrace of his wings.

For a long time, he stayed there, on the floor, unable and unwilling to move away from his spot. A while later, his heart and breathing calmed enough for him to drag himself to his feet and stumbled over to his bed, emotionally exhausted.

Lying on his bed, he did have the energy to get under the covers and so stayed on top of them. Despite his complete and utter desire for sleep, his body refused to grant him as much. For most of the night, he ended up tossing and turning, mind racing a million miles an hour, giving him no hope of peace or sleep.

\---

The next day, Keith entered the cafeteria with a single mission in mind: find Lance and get him to talk about what happened during his visits. Although he had fallen to sleep in the early hours of the morning and he still felt the creeping exhaustion following him around, he was determined to accomplish his goal and forced himself to keep moving and stay awake.

Since he didn’t know where Lance, Hunk, and Pidge sat before joining the rest of their group, he decided to sit at the usual table and wait for Lance to come over. Getting his food, he almost sat down next to Shiro before remembering that he was still upset with him and moved to sit beside Matt, using the light brown haired boy as a barrier between him and Shiro. Ignoring the others’ confused looks at his new seat, he focused on eating his lunch.

Around the same time that he finished eating, Pidge and Hunk came over to join them, Lance noticeably absent. Frowning, Keith was about to question them about it but found Matt beating him to it.

“Hey Pidgeon,” Matt greeted his sibling. “Where’s Lance? Isn’t he usually with you?”

“Yeah, he said something about needing extra help with his literature assignment that’s due tomorrow and ran off,” Pidge answered as they sat down on Matt’s other side, next to Shiro, seeming unbothered with the new seating arrangement. “He probably won’t be joining us.”

“Which is really unhealthy,” Hunk fretted, taking the seat next to Allura, Lance’s usual seat, and leaving the seat next to Keith empty. “He didn’t eat much of his lunch and I’m worried. Plus, on top of that, he wouldn’t even tell me what was bothering him yesterday. That’s something he never does.”

“That’s concerning,” Matt commented. “It was clear something upset him yesterday, but I wouldn’t have thought it would upset him like that.”

At the announcement, Keith’s frown deepened and he fixed his eyes on his plate, picking at the remaining food. Tuning out the rest of the conversation which followed, he ignored Shiro’s worried looks in his direction and focused on figuring out how else to talk to Lance for the entirety of lunch.

Once the bell rang, he threw away the plate and headed to class, walking as fast as he could. If he got to class fast enough, he might have enough of a chance to speak to Lance in some amount of privacy before class started. At some point, Hunk and Pidge caught up to him, but he ignored their attempts to include him in their conversation.

Arriving at class, them being some of the first students to get there, Keith found himself disappointed to find that Lance wasn’t there. Sitting down, he focused on the door, wanting to catch Lance the moment he entered the room. However, Lance didn’t end up getting to class until a second before the bell rang, narrowly missing being late and leaving Keith no opportunity to talk to him. Squashing down his frustration, Keith tried his best to pay attention to the teacher through both his exhaustion and annoyance.

At some point when Ms. Pride was lecturing, he drifted off to sleep. Either Pidge didn’t notice or didn’t care, because when he next awoke, the bell was ringing and students were rushing around the room, packing up their belongings and heading off to their next classes.

“Thanks for waking me up,” Keith grumbled, a bit upset at a third missed chance to reach out to Lance.

Pidge slung their bag over their shoulder. “Hey, I was letting you sleep because you looked like you needed it. Don’t get upset with me. I even took down extra notes for you during the lecture.” Pidge pointed at a couple of sheets of paper on the desk next to his folded arms. “I’m heading off to my next class. See you later.”

“Thanks,” Keith mumbled again, gathering up the papers and shoving them into his notebook. “See you later.”

Packing up the rest of his stuff, he got up and grabbed his bag. Scanning the room, he frowned at seeing that Lance was long gone. Turning away, he left the room and made his way to his last class of the day. He still had one last chance after football practice to run into Lance. This time, he would make sure that he didn’t fail.

\---

Keith lied down on the bleachers, back against the cold metal, staring up at the sky and watching the occasional cloud float by. Running over everything that happened earlier that day, he couldn’t help the frustrated groan that escaped him.

“What’s wrong, Keith?” Hunk asked, looking up from his schoolwork.

“It’s nothing.” He tried to ignore the doubtful look that he could feel Hunk giving him.

At his statement, Pidge barked out a laugh, their attention leaving their computer. “Don’t even try that,” they reprimanded. “It’s been obvious to everyone that something been troubling you all day.”

Sighing, he relented. “It’s just that I’ve been trying to talk to Lance about something and everytime that I try to, he manages to slip away before I can even approach him. I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Ah, that does sound problematic,” Hunk commented.

At that moment, something occurred to Keith. “Do you think Lance might be avoiding me?”

“It’s probable,” Pidge told him. “I mean, at lunch, he conveniently needed to go talk to Mr. Widow right when we were about to go over to join you and the others.” Turning to Hunk, they added, “remember chemistry? He didn’t get to class until right as the bell rang, something he never does even if he hates the class–not counting homeroom, which he doesn’t care about. Plus, after class, he seemed to be in a rush to leave.”

“Oh, yeah,” Hunk agreed. “That was weird. He might be avoiding you.”

“What I wonder,” Pidge mused, “is what is it that you want to talk about that is causing him to want to avoid you?”

Keith shifted on the bleachers. “I don’t know. I don’t even think he knows that I want to talk to him. Though, it could be related.”

“What do you want to talk about with him?” Pidge inquired.

“It’s something that happened last week,” he answered, unwilling to elaborate further than that.

“Interesting,” Pidge commented, turning back to their computer. “How vague.”

“It’s nothing important,” Keith went on. “I just need to ask him about it.”

“It is important if he’s avoiding you so he doesn’t have to talk about it,” Hunk pointed out.

“You have a point,” he sighed. “I don’t suppose either of you could help me?”

The two of them exchanged a glance.

“We might be able to help you corner him after practice,” Pidge told him with a shrug. “We’ll see.”

After that, they each resumed their previous activities; Hunk doing schoolwork, Pidge on their computer, and Keith staring up at the passing clouds. While they waited for practice to end, Pidge kept a vigilant eye on the time.

A minute before practice was scheduled to end, they got them all to pack up their stuff and head down the bleachers, reaching the ground right as the team finished wrapping up. Shiro and Lance broke away from the main group, heading towards where the three of them were waiting. As they watched, Lance said something to Shiro and then moved away, seeming to be avoiding the bleachers as a whole.

“Oh, no he doesn’t,” Pidge muttered. Grabbing a hold of Keith’s arm, they dragged him along as they headed towards Lance, ignoring Shiro, who Hunk intercepted and likely explained what was going on. “Come on, Keith. We have to catch up to him,” they insisted.

Keith let out a startled yelp as he was dragged along without any preamble. “You don’t need to drag me,” he complained, trying to fight against Pidge’s unexpected strength.

They ignored him as they started gaining on Lance. “Lance,” Pidge shouted, causing him to stop in his tracks and glance over his shoulder at them.

As Lance regarded them, his eyes flickered over to Keith for a second before they moved back to Pidge. “Hi Pidge,” he greeted casually, acting as though they hadn’t just chased him down. “Did you need something?”

“Don’t speak to me in that casual tone of yours,” Pidge shot back in response. “We want to know why you’re avoiding Keith.”

Tilting his head to the side, Lance blinked, feigning ignorance. “Am I?”

Rolling their eyes, Pidge nodded. “Yes, you are. He’s been trying to talk to you all day and you keep leaving before he has a chance to.”

“Wait, he wants to talk to me?” Turning to Keith, he reiterated the question. “You want to talk to me?”

Keith nodded as he managed to yank his arm out of Pidge’s grasp. “Yeah,” he confirmed.

At his confirmation, Lance’s face was overcome with interchanging emotions, switching between hope and sadness faster than Keith could process. It settled on some mix of the two after a moment, as though he wanted to be optimistic but couldn’t bring himself to believe it. “Oh, okay. What do you want to talk about?”

Keith blinked, surprised with the new change of pace and the ease at which Lance was now agreeing to talk to him. From his earlier actions that day, he would’ve thought Lance would’ve put up more of a fight. “I-I was kind of w-wanting to talk with you about something...in private.” He sent a small side-glance in Pidge’s direction.

They noticed the look and nodded. “Well, I’ll leave you to it then.” With that, they walked away, stopping to intercept Shiro and Hunk–who had been following them at a slower pace. The three of them left after a moment, walking off towards the parking lot, giving Lance and Keith a considerable amount of space as they passed.

Once the three of them left the immediate area, Lance sat down on the beachers and gestured for Keith to do the same. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

Sitting down next to him, Keith averted his gaze to the ground. “I wanted to talk about what happened last week. You know, while I was absent.” He didn’t want to admit the truth out loud for fear that someone else may be lingering around and overhear.

“Oh. Oh.” The spark of hope on his face increased in volume, pushing away all traces of sadness from his expression. “Okay, ask away then,” he told him, a smile on his face.

“I-well, I overheard you and Shiro talking last night,” he admitted, deciding it was the best place to start.

“You...did?” Keith nodded. “How much did you hear?”

“All of it,” he answered. “I didn’t go to sleep after I went upstairs and when you knocked on the door, I chose to eavesdrop from the upstairs landing.”

“Oh,” Lance said, averting his own gaze, cheeks flushing a light pink. “So, you heard all that?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I did. That’s why I’m talking to you. I can’t trust that Shiro will tell me everything and I need to know what happened.”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Lance told him. “It’s a bit of a long story though.”

“I need to know, Lance,” Keith insisted, looking up at him, eyes pleading. “Please.”

“Okay, I understand,” Lance reassured him. “Well, it started with us–Hunk, Pidge, and I–realising you weren’t at school. Then, I was about to text you when I saw a text from Shiro about you being sick. Once I relayed that to Pidge and Hunk, Hunk suggested baking a cupcake for you as a get well soon kind of thing. So, after school, we went over to his house and did as much. We then went over to your house and got Shiro to invite us inside. He tried to play it off as though you just had a fever, but we all could tell it was more than that. After checking up on you, he went to get some of your medicine, only to realise that you didn’t have any more. Since Allura was at work and he didn’t want to leave you alone just in case, he had to leave us at the house while he ran out to get more medicine. At some point, I couldn’t stand the knowledge that you were in pain and alone, so I went upstairs to check on you. You mistook me for Shiro at first and asked me about your medicine. I don’t even know if, at the time, you were listening when I told you I wasn’t Shiro. Anyway, you started complaining about it being hot and I took off your blankets because I thought it would be helpful. That’s pretty much how I learned that you were a phoenix hybrid. After that, I was going to leave, but you asked me to stay and told me that talking helped. I stayed and, while I was talking, it did seem to lessen the amount of pain you appeared to be in. Therefore, I decided to visit every day afterward to talk to you and help.”

“Oh, wow,” Keith commented, uncertain of what else to say. In his mind, some of the faint memories from the first day of his moulting became clearer and more solidified in his mind. The shadowy outline that dominated his more prominent memories was now identifiable as Lance, the wordless voice able to be discerned with Lance’s voice, his manner of speaking, his notable accent–slight as it was. “What-what did we talk about?”

“Well, it was mostly me talking and you listening. Though, we didn’t talk about anything important.” At his own statement, Lance’s face fell, a frown replacing the faded smile from earlier when they started their conversation. “It’s not anything I think you’d care about.”

“Really?” Something in Keith’s mind told him to doubt that statement. However, he didn’t ask about it at the moment, instead moving to something else. “Why were you avoiding me, by the way?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Lance replied, appearing to shrug off the question even as the frown on his face deepened.

“It doesn’t seem like you would avoid me over nothing,” Keith stated, trying to push further on the topic to get Lance to answer. His lilac eyes fixated on Lance’s azure ones, watching for the flickering changes of emotion in them.

“It’s not important,” he insisted. Under Keith’s gaze, he started chewing on his lower lip, meeting his eyes, trying to be stubborn. However, after a moment, he wilted under the other’s gaze and confessed. “Okay, okay, I give.” Keith stare relented somewhat. “I was avoiding you because of some of things I told you. When I would talk, I wasn’t paying the best of attention to what I was saying. Some stuff slipped out that was private and sensitive. Even though I know you don’t remember any of it, it still is embarrassing and it kind of hurts to know that you don’t remember, even though I know it’s not your fault. It’s just I’ve never told anyone some of the stuff before and the one person who I did tell doesn’t remember.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Keith apologised, averting his gaze to his shoes, feeling like it was his fault for not remembering. “You know, if it would make you feel better, you can tell me now and I promise to not forget it this time.”

“I don’t know,” Lance admitted, seeming hesitant to repeat everything he’d told him. A mischievous spark appeared in his eyes. “It doesn’t seem fair that you would know stuff that no one else knows about me and I wouldn’t know that kind of stuff about you. Maybe we’ll have to make a trade. I’ll repeat what I told you earlier and you tell me something you’ve never told anyone else.”

Keith rolled his and huffed. “Fine, I’ll take your deal. I’ll tell you something about me that no one else knows if you tell me what we talked about during my moutling.”

“I want to be able to choose what you tell me,” Lance demanded.

Frowning, Keith hesitated, uncertain about this new condition to their deal. Reasoning to himself that it would make Lance happier, he agreed. “Alright, you can choose.”

A small, mischievous grin spread across his face to match the gleam in his eyes. “I want you to tell me about what made you stop going to school.”

At the request, Keith recoiled on instinct. That was something no one outside of the situation knew, not even Shiro or his parents. However, one glance at Lance’s face told him it was this or nothing. Therefore, he complied. “Fine, it’s a deal.”

“Great,” Lance exclaimed, pleased with his acceptance of the deal. “You go first.” Before Keith could get out a word in objection, he explained his decision. “I have technically told you stuff that no one else knows; it’s just reminding you of them for me. However, this is something you haven’t told anyone before. It’s only fair.”

Frown deepening, Keith complied with the request with a sigh. “Okay, I see your reasoning.” Taking a deep breath, forcing his face into a neutral expression, he began speaking, the memories of the event flashing across his vision as he spoke of it for the first time.

~~~

_Keith hadn’t known why he ignored his gut instincts and years of being told that most people were not accepting of hybrids. When he first moved to the town of Vendown a couple months ago to come to a new foster home, he never imagined he would make a friend. At all his previous foster homes, he’d kept to himself and gained a reputation as a loner in each of his previous towns. Then, Trevor came along and started inviting him to participate in games with his other friends. Although he hadn’t liked any of Trevor’s friends, he had liked having Trevor as a friend._

_Jerked out of his thoughts as he pitched forward towards the floor, his lunch tray escaped his grasp and landed on the ground face down as he did the same next to it. Mumbling quiet curses that would’ve earned him two months of grounding at home, he lifted himself off the floor and started cleaning up his now wasted lunch, sparing a single glance to his left to see the person who had tripped him._

_“Look at the little freak,” the perpetrator, one of Trevor’s friends, a boy named Evan, commented with a laugh. “Can’t even keep his balance.”_

_Biting back the retort he wanted to make, Keith forced himself to finish cleaning up the mess on the floor. Despite what may happen at school, he kind of liked his foster parents here, them being one of the more understanding and supportive foster parents that he’d had over the past five years. If he did retaliate, he’d likely have to move again. Besides, this was his fault. Being the idiot that he was, he’d told Trevor that he was a hybrid; although, he had not shown the boy his wings or given him any smidge of proof. However, his words were enough and for the past three weeks, this had been his life. Biting his tongue–sometimes literally–and sucking it up. He could deal with them making remarks towards him._

_“Did you know that he’s in foster care,” a second voice, another of Trevor’s friends, Adrien said. “His parents didn’t even tolerate him enough to keep him around, choosing to abandon him. Even though they were freaks too, they couldn’t stand being around a freak as bad as him.”_

_Keith gritted his teeth, grip tightening on the tray in his hands, as the statement rang out in the cafeteria, hanging over him. As the words sunk in further, he couldn’t hold himself back. Dropping the tray back on the floor, he whirled around and punched Adrien in the nose._

_Adrien fell to the ground, hand clutching his nose, though that didn’t prevent the blood from dripping down his face. Eyes narrowing, the boy shot to his feet and returned the punch with his free hand, sending Keith to the ground, blood now trickling out of his own nose. “You dumb freak,” the boy growled._

_Getting back on his feet and ignoring the scent of blood that filled his nose, Keith surged forward and punched Adrien again, this time it landed on his cheek and sent him falling back down. Face a mask of fury and blind with anger, Keith got on top of the other boy, holding Adrien down, and hit him again in the same spot as before. He took satisfaction in the knowledge that his face would be bruised after today._

_“You can insult me all you like,” Keith snarled. “But when you insult my parents, that’s when you’ve gone too far.”_

_“Yeah, what are you going to do about,” Adrien asked in a mocking tone._

_Keith lifted his fist up, ready to punch the boy again, when the authoritative voice of a teacher reached his ears._

_“Boys, you stop this right now,” Ms. Sepper commanded. “Keith, get off of Adrien this instant.”_

_A little of the anger ebbed away and Keith reluctantly stood up and walked a few steps away from the other boy, who rose to his feet with a sneer on his face._

_“Ms. Sepper, Keith attacked me out of nowhere,” Adrien claimed as he whined, forced tears trickling down his cheeks. “He punched me three times.”_

_“Is this true, Keith?” Ms. Sepper asked, turning to face him._

_Keith didn’t bother with a response, wiping away some of the blood on his face with his sleeve. Although the attack wasn’t out of nowhere–he had a reason for doing what he did–he also didn’t care enough to try and gain sympathy points like Adrien was doing._

_Ms. Sepper examined both of them before grabbing hold of one of each of their arms and dragging them with her. “Come on, we’re going to the principal's office.”_

~~~

“After that, I was given an expulsion from the school and had to move to another foster house,” Keith said, wrapping up the story. “At my next foster house, I refused to go to school and, after a while, everyone gave up trying to force me to go. That’s why I stopped going to school.”

Lance stared at him in shocked silence for a couple minutes, appearing to be at a loss for words. “Wow,” he said finally. “I didn’t realise. That’s awful. I’m sorry you went through that and that I pushed you to tell me.”

Keith took a deep breath and forced away the remnants of the memory. “It’s not important now. Come on, let’s get on with your part of the deal.”

“Ah, yes. What all we talked about during my visits. Get ready cause this is going to be long,” Lance confessed with a laugh, trying to lighten the mood, despite knowing that it might go back down when he started on his end of the bargain.

~∞~

Sometime during his recollection of everything he’d told Keith, Lance heard the other boy’s phone go off. It was only after he finished that Keith bothered to glance at his phone. As he did, a small amused smile twitched at the corner of Keith’s mouth.

“What is it?” Lance inquired.

Turning off his phone, Keith shrugged. “Just Shiro telling me that we were taking too long so he took Pidge and Hunk home and that we’d have to get ourselves home.”

“Were we really talking for that long?” he wondered, checking his own phone for the time only to see a concerned text from his mom, which he quickly replied to.

Another shrug. “I wasn’t watching the time,” Keith responded. “Though, we should get going considering that it’s almost six o’clock.” Standing up, he stretched his arms out.

Lance stood up as well, shoving his phone into his pocket. “Yeah, my mom’s getting worried that I’m not home yet. I’ll drive you home.” There was a moment of silence before he added, “If you’re okay with that, of course.”

A second amused smile tugged at the edge’s of the other’s mouth even as he rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m okay with that. My other option is walking and that doesn’t sound any better than catching a ride with you.” Without waiting for him, Keith set off, heading towards the parking lot.

“Hey, wait up,” Lance called, searching around in his pockets for his keys and then hurrying to catch up to him. He held up his keys in Keith’s line of vision. “Can’t go anywhere without me since I have the keys.”

“I suppose you do have a point there,” Keith stated.

“You suppose,” Lance cried in fake offense. “I came out here to have a good time and, honestly, I’m feeling so attacked right now!”

Keith stopped in his tracks so suddenly that Lance almost bumped into him. His lilac eyes stared at Lance in shock. “Did you seriously just say that?”

An impish grin appeared on Lance’s face. “Why? Does it bother you?”

Throwing his hands up in either exasperation or defeat, Keith started walking away at a faster pace than before. “I can’t,” he stated.

“Come on, Keith!” Lance laughed as Keith sent him a rather rude hand gesture. Sighing, he didn’t bother to catch up with Keith at the moment, instead thinking back on what all he’d told Keith about what they had talked about during his moulting. Of course, he had elected to not tell Keith certain things, such as the times when he’d walked out on Keith and what had caused them each to happen. He didn’t know if he regretted his decision or not. Oh well, it wasn’t important at the moment.

Meeting Keith at his car, he unlocked the doors and they both got inside. Turning on the engine, they drove out of the school parking lot.

In an attempt to break the silence, Lance decided to ask, “so, what are your plans for the weekend?”

Keith shrugged. “Catching up on stuff I missed is going to take up most of my time. What about you?”

“Nothing much,” Lance answered. “You know, if you want, I wouldn’t mind coming over to help you. Since I don’t have any other plans.” He almost mentioned getting Hunk and Pidge to also help out, but something about the idea of being with Keith without the other two was appealing to him and so he didn’t say anything.

“Oh, that would be awesome,” Keith replied with a grateful smile. “If you wouldn’t mind. It’s only literature and chemistry that I need to catch up on and we do have the same teachers, even if not the same class.”

“Yeah, I don’t mind at all. I’d love to help out.” Lance returned the smile. “Would tomorrow work for you or would you prefer Sunday?”

“Tomorrow’s fine,” Keith told him. “Shiro is planning on going out with friends tomorrow so we don’t have to worry about disrupting him.”

“Great!” Pulling up to Keith’s house, Lance gave him a cheerful wave. “See you tomorrow then!”

Grabbing his bag and getting out, Keith returned the wave. “See you tomorrow. Thanks for the ride.” The car door slammed shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Constructive criticism and feedback is always welcome


	14. Those Sleepless Nights of Ours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm super sorry about this being late. Yesterday was quite the day for me. Thank you for your patience :) I'll do my best to not let this happen again in the future

_“Remember Keith, you must never tell anyone what you are. They will judge you for what you cannot control.”_

_Although his vision was blurry and his mind was filled with cotton, he stumbled forth from the car, ignoring the red which spilled down at the edge of his vision. Managing a few steps away from the wreckage, his legs buckled and he collapsed to the ground. Willing strength into his body, he turned his head to look back at the silver car, it’s roof punched in, laying upside down in a ditch. Wisps of dark smoke rose from its front. Attempting to stand up, he found himself unable to do so. Instead, he resorted to crawling, inching, forward towards the wreckage._

_Pulling his weakened body up to the passenger’s side of the car, he peered in through the open window at the two adults still inside, seat belts fastened. A man sat in the driver’s seat, head thrown forward at an odd angle into the airbag which had released too late to save him. In the passenger’s side, the closest to him, a woman sat, blood dripping down from her forehead, barely breathing. Her mouth was moving, the movements kept small, and yet her words rung out clear in the warm summer air. The same words he heard before he left the car. Her eyes flew open, finding him the instant they did. A small and apologetic smile spread across her face as she reached towards him, brushing a crimson stained hand softly across his cheeks. She shuttered, it spreading through her entire body, right before her hand fell limp and slipped off his face, eyes closing as her chest lifted once more before it stopped._

_Screaming echoed through the lush green landscape, the sound along with dark crimson stains, a metallic copper scent in the air, and the smoking car being the only things to ruin the scenery. He couldn’t find the origin of the screams. At some points, it sounded as though it was him. But when he tried to force himself to stop, the screaming seemed to come from the damp earth beneath him. Heartbroken sobs accompanied the screams as he reached for the woman’s hand, only to find it cold with shrinking warmth._

Lurching up in bed, Keith panted heavily. The images flashed through his field of vision again and again, a cycle that seemed never ending. A sob, much like the one from the nightmare, was drug up from his throat, him unable to stop the sound. Water poured from his eyes, slipping down his cheeks, landing on both his clothes and his bedsheets. He wanted to scream. Red stained images clouded his vision.

It was a long time before the images stopped flashing past. Once they did, he reached over and grabbed a fist full of tissues, using them to wipe away the remaining and persistent tears. Throwing the tissues into his trash can, he glanced at the clock, noting that it was three o’clock. Getting up from bed, he wandered over to his dresser, staring at his reflection in the mirror, making sure that if–for some reason–he runs into Shiro, there’ll be no visible trace of what happened. At the sight of his own wings, he visibly grimaced and hid them, unable to stand looking at them at the moment. Content with his appearance and stopping to grab some of his art supplies, he left his room and made his way down the hall, keeping as quiet as possible, especially as he passed Shiro’s room.

Going downstairs, cursing the creaky floorboards on the stairs, Keith stopped by the living room to put down his art materials then went into the kitchen and started looking through cabinets. He grabbed a cup, which he filled halfway with water, and took one of the tonics, mixing it into the water. The idea of forgetting his dream was appealing and it was all too easy to give in.

Taking his strange mixture, he returned to the living room and sat down on the couch. Sipping on the drink, he turned on the tv, lowering its volume to a level where it hopefully wouldn’t disrupt Shiro. Placing his drink aside as a faint haze gripped his thoughts, he turned to his sketchbook and flipped to an empty page, pencil in hand.

At first, when he started his new drawing, he didn’t focus much on what he wanted the end result to be. Scattered marks appeared wherever he felt it was right to put them. It was only when he unconsciously picked up the red coloured pencil and held it up to his work that he noticed the scene that his mind had chosen to draw.

The scenery was pleasant. A lush area on the edge of a forest, bushes along the tree line and various flowers in full bloom throughout the clearing leading up to that tree line. If one glanced at it once before turning away, they might have seen just that scenery. However, if you looked at it and took it in, you would see the line of smoke on the far left side of the drawing. You would notice the back of a silver vehicle, tires up in the air, useless. Your eyes would take in the bit of uncoloured liquid originating from underneath the car–blood. Another detail you may have observed was the small shadow of a human-like figure, wings being the only difference between it and a regular person, the owner of the shadow hidden by the car.

A second after his realisation of what he’d drawn, he dropped the red pencil and tore out the piece of paper, letting it fall face down on the ground, refusing to touch it again after that. Reaching towards the table, he grabbed his drink and downed every last bit of the mixture that had remained after his first couple of sips. His goal to lose his mind–to distract himself from his own thoughts–intensified. Discarding the now empty cup to the side and picking up his pencil, he returned to his sketchbook and started on a new drawing.

Despite the concoction’s dulled and diluted effects, a warm haze clouded over his thoughts and made it difficult for him to fully process everything around him and even his own movements. Keith lost himself in the sound of the pencil scratching on the paper. Before he knew it, he was blindly reaching for the box of coloured pencils, bringing the piece to life with colour and shading. His vision was fuzzy and so he couldn’t tell what it was that he had drawn yet; although, that didn’t bother him one bit.

“Keith?”

He ignored the voice, too entranced in his own world and thoughts too unfocused to bother with providing a response.

“Keith.” The voice is closer. “It’s five in the morning. What are you doing up so early, Keith?”

A hand grabbed his arm, forcing him into a stop and shocking him enough for his mind to clear slightly. Looking up from his drawing, he stared up at Shiro, blinking. “Shiro?” he questioned.

“Yeah,” Shiro answered. “Why are you awake at a time like this? It’s not like you.”

“I...I was...” He stumbled around for an answer, still trying to piece together his scattered thoughts from the tonic.

As he did so, Shiro seemed to realise what happened. “You drank your tonic, didn’t you?” Sighing, he moved closer, aiming to sit down next to his brother, when his foot stepped on something that emitted a loud crinkling sound. Both of them glanced down to see that he had stepped on a piece of paper. Leaning down, Shiro picked it up and flipped it over, his dark eyes going wide at what was drawn on it. “Oh, Keith,” he muttered sympathetically. Putting the drawing aside, he sat down and wrapped Keith in a hug–who stiffened at the touch–his dusty brown wings surrounding them.

In his brother’s embrace, Keith kept his focus on not letting any tears escape, refusing to let them fall for the second time that morning. “It’s nothing,” he mumbled, uncertain of which of them he was trying to convince.

“No, it wasn’t,” Shiro insisted, keeping his voice soft and comforting. “It is not nothing. Keith, it happens to everyone. We all get nightmares about things that scare us or that we don’t want to think about.”

“But it happened so many years ago,” he protested, trying to not focus on the way his voice broke while he did so. “My last nightmare happened four years ago. It was supposed to stop. It wasn’t-”

Shiro hushed him. “It’s okay. You always refuse to talk about what happened with anyone and so it’s expected that it would show up again.” Pulling away just enough so that he could meet Keith’s gaze, he asked, “Did something happen to bring it up again?”

The question brought Keith back to his conversation with Lance the previous day. If that was why the memory of that event returned, it would make a lot of sense. Even if he hadn’t directly talked to him about the accident, he still mentioned it when he was telling Lance what happened back then. “I...I didn’t...” He stumbled around for how to respond. He didn’t want to outright tell Shiro about the conversation, but he also didn’t know what else to say.

Luckily, Shiro seemed to understand that after a moment and once again wrapped Keith in a hug. “It’s fine,” he told him.

“I...thank you,” Keith sighed, relaxing into the hug.

They sat there for a couple more minutes until Shiro pulled away once more, his wings also moving away and folding up against his back. Standing up, he stretched out his back, causing a loud popping sound to fill the room. “Well, it is still five in the morning on a Saturday. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to head back to bed and get some more sleep. If I were you, I would do the same.”

Keith nodded as he gripped the sides of his sketchbook–which had been pressed up between him and Shiro for the entire time that they’d been hugging. “Yeah, I’ll do that. See you in a couple hours.”

“Goodnight,” Shiro said with a wave, heading back upstairs and leaving Keith alone in the living room once more.

When Shiro was out of sight, Keith closed his eyes and exhaled before reopening them. He hadn’t yet seen the drawing that he’d been working on before Shiro interrupted him and he hoped the hug hadn’t ruined it in any way. Steeling his nerves, he pulled the sketchbook away from his chest and held it out in front of him.

He gasped at the sight of the picture.

In his opinion, it was beautiful. Even with a single glance, he would call it one of his best works. The varying hues of blues, greens, and greys all swirled together to make the background look almost realistic. It was an underwater scene decorated with rocks that climbed up the left side of the drawing, the occasionally bit of greenery placed amongst them. Slight off center, the focus of the work was a merman. It was that which occupied most of his attention. The deep blue shade of his tail highlighted his warm tan skin and made his similarly coloured blue eyes pop out. With his dark and warm colouring as opposed to the bright and lifeless colours of his background, the emphasis placed on the merman was obvious and made it clear that he was the most important feature. However, what struck Keith as puzzling, was how familiar the merman seemed, as though he knew him or had seen him before, but he couldn’t place it.

Shrugging, he disregarded the feeling. All that mattered in that moment was that he loved the drawing. Turning off the tv and gathering up his stuff, he headed to the kitchen to put his cup into the dishwasher and then headed upstairs, struggling to keep from yawning as his exhaustion caught up to him. Alongside having woken up at three in the morning, he also hadn’t gone to bed until midnight, giving him three hours or so worth of sleep. After everything that happened, he was now feeling well enough to not hate the idea of going back to sleep.

In his room, he returned his art supplies to where he kept them. Before putting his sketchbook away, he carefully tore out the drawing of the merman and then proceeded to hang it up on his wall. Stepping back, he nodded in contentment with where he placed the picture.

Letting out another yawn, he turned around and fell onto his bed, falling asleep the minute his head hit the pillow.

\---

“Keith! Get Up!”

Shiro’s voice disrupted his dark, dreamless sleep. Groaning, he cracked open his eyes to glare at his brother. “What?”

“Lance is here,” Shiro informed him. “He mentioned something about helping you catch up on your schoolwork. Anyway, he’s here and waiting in the living room while you’re still in bed.”

It took a moment for Keith’s still half asleep brain to processing Shiro’s words. Once it did, his eyes flew wide open and he jumped out of bed, running around to change out of his pajamas. Muttering curses, which Shiro chose to avoid thinking about, he hurried to clean up his room and make it at least presentable. Once he finished, he let out a huff and then grabbed his pile of unfinished schoolwork. Moving past his brother, he asked him, “Aren’t you supposed to be hanging out with your friends today?”

Shrugging, Shiro followed after him. “I still have an forty-five minutes before we plan to meet up and it’s a twenty minute drive. I have time,” he responded.

Frowning, Keith mumbled, “Great.” Shiro didn’t say anything in response, instead turning and entering his own room, closing the door behind him.

Taking a deep breath, Keith continued to the stairs and headed to the living room. Opening his mouth, about to greet Lance, he stopped in his tracks. Although most of the earlier events of that morning were difficult to remember, he did recall the second drawing he made. Now, staring at Lance, he could place why the merman appeared to be so familiar to him. The merman was modeled after Lance.

“Uh, Keith?” Lance asked hesitantly. “Are you okay?”

Blinking, Keith realised that he’d been standing there and staring at Lance for an extended amount of time that would qualify as creepy with his mouth hanging open. “Oh, sorry. I just...remembered something. I didn’t mean to stare. Sorry,” he stumbled out in apology. Walking over towards the couch, he was still distracted and ended up bumping his leg on the table. Sudden pain flared up in his leg, causing him to bite his lip to fight against the instinct to say, “ow,” or curse. Trying to ignore the pain, he sat down on the couch, putting the stack of papers that he carried down on the coffee table.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lance inquired once more, the worry evident in his voice and expression.

“Yeah, I-I’m fine,” he responded. “Anyway, let’s get started. It’ll take long enough as is.”

Frowning, Lance regarded him with suspicion and concern. “Really, ‘cause you look pretty tired to me. Maybe I should go and we can do this tomorrow or something.” He started moving to get up off the couch.

Keith’s hand shot out to grab his arm and stop Lance. “No, I’m fine. You don’t need to leave. We can do this today so we can get it over and done with,” he insisted. “I’m fine. It’s nothing.”

A flicker of understanding and ever growing worry appeared in Lance’s azure blue eyes at Keith’s last statement. However, he did not press the matter and sat back down with a nonchalant shrug after Keith let go of his arm. “Alright. If you’re certain, then let’s get started.” Leaning over to grab the papers, he started skimming over them. “So, what are we going to start with: literature or chemistry?”

“Um, which one takes less brain power?” Keith asked, leaning back into the couch, thankful that Lance was not going on to continue questioning him.

Lance made a small humming noise in the back of his throat as he continued flipping through papers. “Well, I’d say literature. I’m good at understanding all that symbolism and whatnot. I don’t know which one you find easier though, so I don’t know.”

Shrugging, Keith responded, “I’m not really good at either one in particular. We should go with literature though, since you find it easier.”

“Okay,” Lance agreed. “You have a couple things you need to read along with some questions, but that’s pretty much all that you need to do to catch up on. You’ll need your textbook.” He began taking a few select papers out of the stack, placing the remaining stack back on the table.

“I’ll go get it,” Keith said. Standing up, he ran out to his room to grab his textbook.

When he was heading back down the hallway, Shiro exited his own room and started towards the stairs as well.

“Are you leaving?” Keith inquired, catching up to him.

Shiro glanced over at him and nodded. “Yeah, it’s almost time for me to meet up with my friends.”

“Oh, cool,” Keith commented. “Have fun.”

“Thanks, we will,” Shiro responded with a smile.

“But not too much fun,” Keith teased. “If you know what I mean.”

His brother’s face flushed a bright red. “Keith! You can’t just say something like that!”

Keith only laughed at his brothers reaction and continued on his way back to the living room. Sitting down next to Lance, he placed his textbook on the table. “I’ve got my textbook,” he announced.

“I can see that,” Lance replied. Grabbing one of the papers that he removed from the stack, he scanned over it and then opened up the book, flipping through the pages until he got to the right spot. “Alright, we’ll start with this one. Just read the story and then answer the first three questions.”

“Got it.” Leaning over, he was about to start reading when Shiro passed through the living room.

“I’m off,” he informed them. “Try not to have too much fun while I’m gone.”

“Okay. Have fun, Shiro,” Lance bid, not thinking too much over his words.

Keith, however, glared up at his sibling. He didn’t say anything, just watched Shiro as he left the house. Once the door slammed shut, he turned back to his book and started reading.

His progress through his literature assignments was slow, he knew that. The reading didn’t take him long. No, it was the having to understand the significance of certain things that he couldn’t figure out what they might represent or why they were included. Lance, of course, explained whenever he asked for help, patient when it took Keith talking through it to grasp an understanding. Even though Lance was a source of calm, Keith couldn’t help getting frustrated with the assignments. When the other had to correct his answer for the eleventh time, he snapped.

Slamming the book shut, he threw it off to the side in a vicious manner. “Sun above, I hate this stupid shit!” He growled. His arms twitched with the urge to ruin the textbook’s pages, to feel the pages crumple up, hear the crinkling sound of paper folding in on itself.

“Keith,” Lance exclaimed in surprise at the sudden action, jumping out of his seat in shock. Right as Keith took a step towards the book, Lance grabbed a hold of his arm, stopping him and causing him to whirl around to meet his gaze. “Hey, relax. It’s okay if you mess up. Not everyone can be expected to succeed at everything. This stuff just isn’t your forte and that’s fine.”

“But you have such an easy time with this,” Keith grumbled. “I don’t get it. It’s so frustrating.”

“Come on, sit back down,” Lance urged. “We’re working on this together. There’s no need to get so worked up over it.”

Huffing, Keith complied and sat down, arms crossed, a frown firmly planted on his face. Walking over, Lance picked up the textbook and brought it back over. Flipping it to the page where they had left off on, he placed it down on the table.

“Now, we were on question four of this one, right?” Lance asked, leaning over to read the page, resting his arms on his legs as he did so.

Arms still crossed, Keith nodded. “Yeah,” he responded.

“Okay, so, it asks for us to explain the symbolic purpose of the king coming across the dying lion,” Lance stated as he read the question. “What do you think?” He looked up and over at Keith.

Keith took a couple minutes to ponder the question–during which the house was in complete silence. After a moment, he provided a hesitant answer. “Is it symbolising something about the end of his rein over the kingdom? Because, you know, lions usually represent rulers and the one he came across was dying. So, it would show that his time as a ruler was dying, coming to an end.” Chewing on his lower lip, he glanced over at Lance out of the corner of his eye, hoping that he hadn’t gotten it wrong again. “Right?”

Lance’s features lit up and his mouth broke into a brilliant and overjoyed grin. “That’s right,” he proclaimed. “You got it!”

Keith took a couple minutes to ponder the question–during which the house was in complete silence. After a moment, he provided a hesitant answer. “Is it symbolising something about the end of his rein over the kingdom? Because, you know, lions usually represent rulers and the one he came across was dying. So, it would show that his time as a ruler was dying, coming to an end.” Chewing on his lower lip, he glanced over at Lance out of the corner of his eye, hoping that he hadn’t gotten it wrong again. “Right?”

Lance’s features lit up and his mouth broke into a brilliant and overjoyed grin. “That’s right,” he proclaimed. “You got it!”

In the instant after seeing Lance’s expression, three things happened in quick succession.

First, Keith’s heart sped up to the point where he was concerned it might burst out of his chest.

Second, warmth rapidly spread across his face, his cheek turning bright red.

Third, his wings reappeared with no preamble, flames roaring across the multicoloured feathers, the intensity of the flames so much that he began sweating profusely.

“W-woah, K-keith,” Lance exclaimed in surprised panic, jumping a few feet away from the other. “Dude, are you okay?”

Keith’s eyes were wide in reaction to the sudden events. “I-I don’t know.” He couldn’t do anything, not even move, his thoughts consumed with a mix of concern and fear.

“What happened?” Lance inquired, his initial panic dying now that he was on the other side of the couch. “What caused–” he gestured wildly in Keith’s direction– “this? Are you sick or something?”

“I don’t-don’t know,” he stuttered out. “Nothing like...this has happened before.” Though still ablaze, the flames had died down somewhat in intensity. However, both his heart and face had made no progress towards normal. It didn’t help that he was currently having trouble focusing. Zoning out and staring off into the distance was too easy at the moment and the potential to separate himself from this situation was tempting. But he forced himself to not zone out, trying not to lose himself in his racing thoughts.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Lance told him.

Keith’s purple eyes zeroed in on him, still blown wide. He needed Lance to keep talking. Perhaps Lance caught some of that need in his expression, because he continued.

“You’re okay,” Lance stated. Scooting closer, he met Keith’s gaze. “We’ll figure this out. Okay? It’ll be okay.”

Keith nodded and took a few deep breaths. Inhale. Exhale.

Inhale. Exhale.

Inhale. Exhale.

After three, he could feel himself relaxing. It would be fine. He’d figure this out.

The rush of flames covering his wings shrunk down until they all extinguished, leaving his wings clear of fire. His heart rate slowed down slightly and the warmth dulled. With his mind cleared, he began trying to puzzle together what happened. Was he sick? He’s never felt like this before. But he doesn’t get sick aside from his seasonally moulting. Brow furrowed, he frowned down at his feet.

“Hey, are you okay?” Lance asked after a moment, face falling into a frown. “Are you sick?”

Looking up at him, Keith felt the feelings return, though diluted from earlier. “I-uh, don’t know,” he replied, averting his eyes back downward towards the ground. “I might be.”

“Oh.” Lance’s azure eyes watched him for a minute. “Do you want to stop for now and pick this up another day?”

Keith hesitated before nodding. “Yeah, that is a good idea.” He started to throw his stuff together. The longer he sat there, the faster his heart began to beat and the more warmth that traveled to his face. Grabbing all of his stuff, an amount that was difficult to carry all at once, he made his way to the stairs. “Sorry about cutting this off.” He misstepped, barely catching himself as he grabbed the railing to steady himself, the top book taking a couple papers with it as it slid off the stack. “I’ll–” The book landed on his foot, causing him to cut himself off. “Ow!” he yelped as the heavy weight landed. “Suns above!”

Then Lance was there, having rushed over. He reached down and picked up everything that had fallen. “Are you okay? Do you want an ice pack?” he inquired, picking the book up off his foot.

Keith bit the inside of his mouth as his foot throbbed with pain. “No, I’m fine,” he replied. “I’ll manage.” Reaching for the stuff which Lance was holding, he frowned when the other pulled back.

“You just hurt yourself trying to carry all this. I’m going to help you take this stuff up to your room,” Lance insisted. Turning around, he started up the stairs.

Sighing, Keith followed after him. His heart still felt as though it was trying to burst out of his chest, but it had calmed somewhat. Though, the warmth to his face stayed.

Reaching his room, Lance pushed the door open. Stepping inside, he walked over to the desk and placed down the stuff he was carrying. Straightening back up, he dusted his hands off as his gaze drifted to the walls. Then he froze.

Walking over, Keith placed down his own stuff. Glancing over at Lance, he frowned, concerned. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” he wondered.

Lance swallowed. Almost hesitantly, he pointed at the drawing hanging on the wall above the desk. “Where did you get that?” he asked, voice sounding forced and strained.

Following where he was pointing, Keith’s heart lurched in his chest as he realised what it was Lance was referring to. That drawing he’d made earlier that morning. The one of Lance as a merman. “O-oh, I drew that,” he answered, worried. He didn’t know what Lance was thinking at the moment, but his visible reaction looked bad. Did he find it weird? Would he stop talking to him, cut off all ties? Start ignoring him? His mind flew through dozens of different scenarios, getting worse as the seconds ticked by.

After a long minute, Lance unfroze and started backing up towards the door. “I-I have to go.” Turning around, he left the room. “I hope-I hope you feel better soon,” he called as he nearly sprinted down the hall.

Keith stood there, staring at the red painted wall in front of him. He didn’t move even as he heard the front door slam shut as Lance fled the house. Everything was fuzzy. Too much happened in too short a time.

After a long while, he turned away from the wall and walked over to his bed. Collapsing on top of the sheets, he closed his eyes and waited for sleep to come to him, desiring sleep to avoid thinking about anything that just happened anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Constructive criticism and feedback is welcome


	15. Story of the Siren

Upon running out of Keith’s house on Saturday, Lance drove home as fast as he could while still remaining safe. The entire way, his whole body was visibly shaking. The drawing took full control of his thoughts, at the front of his mind. He couldn’t bring himself to think of anything else.

Arriving at his home, he parked his car and then spent a few minutes struggling to get his keys out of the ignition, his hands shaking too much. When he finally managed to accomplish that task, he stumbled out of the car, It was only as he approached the front door that he realised he forgot to lock his car and fumbled to do so, almost dropping his keys in the process. Then, he continued into the house, walking stiffly.

As soon as the door closed behind him, his mom appeared to greet him.

“You’re home already? How did–” She broke off as her blue eyes met his. Moving forward, she enveloped him comfortingly in a tight hug. “Mijo, what’s wrong? What happened?”

“Mama,” he cried, leaning into the hug and hiding his face against her shoulder.

For a long while, they stood there in the entryway. She didn’t push for him to tell her anything right away, allowing him time to calm down and collect his thoughts. It took a couple minutes for Lance to stop shaking and, after he did, he stepped back to look at her and began to explain everything that happened.

“Mama,” he repeated. “Keith had a drawing of me in his room where I was transformed. But he’s never seen me like that. I haven’t even told him that.” He had to pause and take a steadying breath. “I don’t know what to do, Mama. It really shocked me and I just ran out on him without an explanation. What do I do? What if he thinks I hate him or something? What if–”

His mom stopped him. “Mijo, slow down. Take a deep breath,” she advised. Even though Lance did as much, he couldn’t keep the worry–almost outright fear–from being painted clearly on his face. “Lance, it’s alright to be afraid. You were surprised as it was something unexpected. However, if you are worried about losing him as a friend, you should explain what happened and why you did what you did.”

He sighed. She was right...”But–”

Once again, his mom stopped him. “You don’t have to tell him the whole truth, but at least give him a reason. That way, he cannot fault you.”

Lance frowned. “But what if–”

“Stop,” his mother ordered in a soft voice. “Mijo, I don’t know him well, but Keith seems like he is a person who won’t stop being friends with you because of something like this. So long as you give him an explanation for his actions, he will forgive you. Trust me.”

Sighing, Lance fell back into his mom’s arms, a heavy weight settling on his shoulders. “I know, Mama. You’re right.” Looking up at her, he pouted. “Can you tell me one of your stories, Mama? Please?”

She chuckled at his pleading. “Of course, mijo. Go get your siblings and see if they would like to listen as well. I’ll be waiting in the living room.”

“Gracias, Mama.” Lance placed a light kiss of gratitude on her cheek before running off to find his siblings.

They weren’t difficult to find. As he explained to them one by one what was happening, they each headed off to the living room while he ran off to find another sibling. None of them seemed inclined to miss one of their mom’s stories.

With Luis following after him and the other two already in the living room, Lance made his way to the aforementioned room where their mom awaited them. She sat on the couch and each of them took a seat on the carpeted floor in front of her. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to site, but it was amazing what you could convince the McClain children to deal with in order to hear one of their mom’s stories.

When all of them were settled, she smiled. “Tonight, I will read you the story of Gloria, the first mer to walk on land,” she proclaimed, opening the book which rested on her lap. All four siblings’ faces lit up; this was their favourite story.

~∞~

A long time ago, there lived a mer named Gloria. She lived with her parents in a pod located just off the coast of a small village. Many in the pod would say that Gloria was one of the most beautiful there with her bright iridescent violet scales and dark, sun-kissed skin. Quite a few other mer’s expressed great interest in her, but she never paid them any mind. Although she had many friends, she was lonely.

One day, when her parents were distracted, Gloria swam up to the surface unnoticed. Upon a small mass of flat rocks, she perched. Taking a deep breath, she began to sing, her soft voice rising into the air and drifting over the waves. A group of birds landed on the rocks next to her, hopping around and permitting her to pet them. A brilliant smile bloomed on her face. Closing her mouth, she continued to hum while petting and watching the birds, turned away from and oblivious to the nearby shore.

On the aforementioned shore, a young man walked in the sand barefoot, trailing behind an older couple, a scowl clearly painted on his face. Although he carried no visible weapons, he gave off a dangerous and deadly aura nonetheless. The couple ahead of him paid him no attention. His eyes were locked on the horizon over the couple’s head, so it became apparent when he tore his eyes away that he noticed Gloria.

Ears picking up the sound of her humming, his head snapped over to look in her direction, eyes glazed over with no emotion in particular. Before anyone could notice or grasp the situation, the man wandered into the water, heading towards Gloria as though in a trance.

Gloria, none the wiser up until this point, watched as one of the birds took flight and flew off towards the shore, following its flight path with her eyes. That was when she saw the man. Immediately, her throat closed up–stopping her humming–and her heart lurched in her chest. Letting out a quiet and started yelp, she hopped off the rocks and dove into the water. Before her head fully submerged, the man called out.

“Wait,” he requested, an arm outstretched in her direction.

She did not heed his request and continued down and away from the surface.

\---

For the next couple of days, Gloria swam up to the surface whenever she could get away from her parents, wanting to return to her favourite activity. However, that man always was there, sitting on the sand and watching the ocean waves. Each time she came up, she rose up enough to see the beach. Every time, he was there. It didn’t matter how early or late she managed to slip away from her parents. At this point, it was getting on her nerves.

Two weeks after their initial meeting–if you could call it that–she’d had enough. The next day, she shoved aside her caution. Pulling herself up onto the rocks, she sighed and leaned back in an attempt to relax. However, it wasn’t long until she heard nearby movement over the crashing of the waves. Lurching upwards, wide blue eyes settled on the man approaching her, he not seeming to mind how his clothes became damp as wave after wave hit him. Her heart pounded in her chest as she scrambled back on the rocks away from him. Her hand hit air.

A startled scream tore itself from her throat as Gloria fell backwards off the rock. Her tail scrapped against the harsh stone, a sharp metallic and coppery scent filled the air. As she fell, it felt as though the world had fallen away beneath her. Then, everything stopped and she hit something solid.

Opening her eyes, she gazed up into the expressionless grey eyes of the man. He had caught her before she could hit the water. Gloria was frozen in his arms, staring up at him, and–for the life of her–couldn’t bring herself to say anything, mouth hanging open somewhat. She involuntarily shivered under his cold gaze. That shiver caused her injured tail to shift and send a wave of pain through her, causing her to cry out once more in pain.

At that, the man’s face twisted into an expression of worry and something else–it appeared to be akin to the expression on a child’s face when they realised they did something wrong yet didn’t know how to make it better. Despite the flashes of pain, Gloria smiled in faint amusement.

“You are hurt,” he stated bluntly. “What should I do?”

“Thanks for stating the obvious,” she laughed half-heartedly. “What do you mean ‘what do I do’? Have you never seen an injured person before?”

He blinked. “Yes, I have, but usually I am the one hurting them. I’ve never needed to tend to their wounds.”

Gloria groaned and buried her head in her hands. “Okay. Well, thank you for catching me, but you can let me go now. I’ll be off now.”

The man appeared hesitant, but he did lower her into the water and let her go. For a moment, she floated in place, stiff as the initial shock of salt water hitting her wound passed, fighting to not cry out once again. When she deemed herself fit enough to swim, she straighten up and flicked her tail. Before she could go far, a fresh and fierce jolt of pain caused her to let out a hastily muffled whimper and stop in her tracks. The man reached out and grabbed her arm, yanking her back over to him and picking her up.

“Let’s not do that,” her told her, carrying her in his arms bridal style.

“Not shit, Sherlock,” she groaned, feeling a tad faint from pain and blood loss.

“I’m going to bring you to my house,” he informed her as he walked. “I’ll take care of your wounds there.”

“But you don’t know how,” she protested, starting to struggle.

The man’s hold on her only tightened, a light of determination flickering in his eyes. “I’ll figure it out,” he told her. “My other option is to leave you here, and you can’t swim.” Not bothering to wait for Gloria to protest further, he picked up his pace.

As he made his way up onto the beach and away from the water, she shivered–this time from the cold–and he held her closer. “My house isn’t too far from her,” he said, perhaps in an attempt to assure her. “I prefer to live close to the water.”

Gloria glanced up at him, but found she couldn’t hold his gaze and so looked away. “Why are you helping me?” she wondered. “You don’t seem like someone who would help any random stranger just because.”

She could feel the moment when his eyes averted away from her. He didn’t answer and merely continued walking.

Not wanting them to walk in silence, rather uncomfortable at the moment, she decided to change the subject. “My name is Gloria,” she offered. “What is yours?”

“I am Fethawi,” he replied.

“That’s a nice name,” she commented. After her statement, Fethawi stumbled and faltered in his tracks for a moment. “What was that?” she asked, concerned. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he growled, recovering and continuing on. “It’s nothing.”

After that, they continued on to Fethawi’s house in silence.

\---

It took a month for Gloria’s tail to fully heal, during which she spent far too much time confined to a bathtub and stuck inside the house. Throughout the month, there had been many ups and downs. Most notably regarding Fethawi and his limited knowledge in healing. They’d learned much about one another during the time, probably far more than either one would’ve bothered to learn in different circumstances. However, there was once thing which Fethawi refused to tell her no matter how many times she asked. Why did he want to help her in the first place? The way he always avoided it made her more suspicious of the answer. And so, it was the day when they were parting, her going back to the ocean and him returning to his usual routine, that she gave the question one last shot.

Fethawi stood where the water reached his knees and she lingered nearby in the water, tentatively swimming about. Swimming up to him, she looked up into his cold eyes. Over the past month, Gloria had grown accustomed to Fethawi’s typically emotionless nature and no longer found herself unable to look him in the eye.

“Fethawi,” she began in a soft voice, drawing his attention to her. “Why did you help me?”

For a long moment, he regarded her, motionless. Then, he sighed and she watched as his shoulders caved in slightly. “You’ve asked me this question numerous times,” he stated, “and I’ve never answered. Yet you continue to ask. Why?”

“It’s because you don’t answer,” she replied. “I’m curious.” Gloria gave a nonchalant shrug.

Once again, he sighed. “That first day, when I heard you singing, I felt something. I don’t know what it was, but it was significant. You know I have trouble with feeling emotion much. So, when I heard you and realised that I felt something, I was infatuated with you.” He paused, before adding, “You have a good voice.”

“I-uh, thank you,” she stuttered out. By the way her face felt as if it were on fire, Gloria knew her cheeks must be beat red. “I think you have a nice voice as well...and you look very handsome.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she internally berated herself for saying that.

Fethawi regarded her with surprise. “You do?” She nodded, averting her gaze. “Thank you.”

For a moment, they sat there in silence, neither willing to move away but both uncertain of what to say.

Then, quietly, she said, “I don’t know why you think my voice is nice. It’s not really my voice.”

He tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I just don’t think I deserve that compliment,” she continued, fidgeting with a loose scale on her tail. “My voice, that’s just a product of being a siren. It’s nothing that truly belongs to me.”

“Regardless of whether or not you’re a siren, it is still your voice,” Fethawi replied. “It belongs to you and no other. And I think it suits you.”

Gloria glanced up at him with bright blue eyes. “I’ve never really thought about that.”

“Well, now you will.”

She smiled up at him. As she watched him, staring up into warm but clouded eyes, a question slipped through her lips unbidden. “Fethawi, do you care about me?” Before he had a chance to answer, a second question followed in quick pursuit. “What is our relationship?”

The other gawked at her, mouth hanging open but silent. Gloria turned away and buried her head in her hands again.

“Sorry,” she apologised. “Ignore those. I didn’t mean to–” She cut herself off when she felt Fethawi crouch down next to her and place a comforting hand on her back.

“Gloria, I care for you more than anyone else I’ve ever known,” he told her earnestly. “As for our relationship, we are friends, are we not?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, biting her lower lip. “We’ve learned so much about each other and we’re good friends, but–” she sighed– “I don’t know if that’s all I want us to be.”

“What do you want us to be?” he inquired.

Her cheeks flushed red. “Perhaps...lovers...” she replied in a small voice.

~∞~

Their mom glanced up and over at the clock illuminating the now darkened room. Turning back to her children, she smiled. “That is all for tonight,” she told them, only to be with disappointed groans. “I’ll finish the story another day. For now, let’s go get some dinner and then it will be off to bed with you four.”

Though they groaned and complained about wanting to hear the rest of the story now, Marco, Veronica, and Luis all got up and headed to the kitchen. However, Lance lingered behind. At seeing him still there, his mom raised a him a questioning eyebrow.

“You said Gloria was a siren, right?” he asked. She nodded. “And sirens’ songs can enchant whoever hears them. Could a siren potentially do something like, say, erase someone’s memories?”

His mom mused over the question. “I suppose it is possible. However, I cannot say for certain. There are no written records of anything like that outside of the old legends.” She regarded him with curiosity. “Why do you ask?”

He hesitated for a moment, considering whether to answer or not. In the end, he decided he couldn’t not tell her. “Well, a friend of mine recently suffered an unusual type of memory loss. The last thing they could recall and tell us was meeting someone in the choir room at school and them asking my friend to listen to their singing.”

“Hmm, that sounds unfortunate,” she commented. “I would hate to hear that it was indeed a siren’s work.”

“Do you know how someone would reverse a siren’s influence?” he inquired, hopeful.

“As far as I know, the only way is to get the siren who cast it to undo it,” she answered. “Although, you could possibly find another method in one of my books.” Lance regarded her with a mix of hope and hesitance. Standing up, she placed a hand gently atop his shoulder. “I’ll allow you to search for another solution in my library. Now, let’s go grab some food.”

Lance beamed at her statement. “Thank you, Mama.” He planted a kiss on her cheek and then headed to kitchen ahead of her, a slight bounce in his step.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween/Samhain/Day of the Dead/Whatever you celebrate on October 31st or have a good day if you celebrate nothing in particular
> 
> Thank you for reading! Constructive criticism and feedback is always welcome!


	16. Whenever I’m Around Him I Start to Feel Sick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the late update. Life has been somewhat chaotic recently and I took the past two days to just do absolutely nothing in an effort to relax and consequentially forgot about updating this.
> 
> Also, sorry as well that this is a bit of a shorter chapter, but it's not something that can be helped. Just felt right in the moment, you know?

Throughout the night, Keith tossed and turned. Every two or so hours, he would wake back up, shift to a different position then fall back asleep, his eyelids too heavy with sleep to remain open for long. His sleep was dark and dreamless, thoughts incoherent and muddled.

When at last he woke up and forced himself out of bed, he didn’t spare a single glance at the clock before wrapping himself up in his thick red blanket, shifting his wings so they comfortably hing towards the ground, and then left his room. Decidedly not hungry, he passed the kitchen and went on to the living room. Sitting down on the couch, he turned on the tv and settled on the first chanel that appeared to have something interesting playing. Despite the fact that it had been over twenty-four hours since he last ate, he didn’t feel at all hungry nor in the mood to drag himself up off the sofa and force himself to eat. It was at that moment, after pondering this all, that Shiro came downstairs.

“Good morning,” Shiro greeted, entering the kitchen.

“Morning,” Keith mumbled in response.

“Sorry about coming home so late yesterday,” Shiro apologised, the sound of shuffling pots and pans providing background noise. “I would’ve apologised last night, but you were passed out. By the way, what did you eat for dinner?”

At the question, Keith grimaced. “Oh, I-well, I didn’t exactly...” His words trailed off, uncertain of if he wanted to finish his sentence. Regardless, he didn’t need to.

Silence. All noise from the kitchen stopped. A moment later, Shiro emerged from the kitchen and marched over to him, mouth twisted down into a frustrated frown. “You what?” Shiro exclaimed. “Did you eat anything yesterday?” No response. “Have you eaten breakfast?” Again, no response. “Keith, come to the kitchen and sit down at the table right now. You will not leave until you’ve eaten breakfast,” he ordered.

Releasing a long, drawn-out sigh, Keith got up and shuffled into the kitchen, still wrapped up in his blanket, Shiro following behind him. Sitting down at the table, he let out a small huff.

Shiro went back to preparing breakfast, setting two pans on the stove, then getting a measuring cup from a cabinet and eggs from the fridge. Cracking eggs, he began to reprimand Keith. “You can’t not eat,” he scolded. “It’s unhealthy. Food is important. Even if you have no energy or motivation to do anything else, eat something. No matter how little it is, eat. Honestly, I can’t believe you haven’t eaten anything in over twenty-four hours. How are you not starving?” Keith merely shrugged. “Eternal flame, you need to take better care of yourself.”

“I know,” Keith mumbled.

It wasn’t long before Shiro finished preparing breakfast, but time seemed to drag on as he continued to scold Keith, even though he did end up tuning his brother out somewhat. A plate was placed before him, bringing him back out of his thoughts. The scent of scrambled eggs filled his nose and his stomach growled loudly.

“Thanks,” Keith told Shiro. He began to devour the meal, which consisted of scrambled eggs and a bagel. After Shiro sat down, began eating, and a moment of silence passed between them, Keith added a quiet, “sorry.”

Sighing, Shiro glanced up at him. “You don’t need to apologise to me,” he responded.

And that was where the conversation ended. They ate in silence. As told, Keith didn’t make any attempt to get up from the table until his plate was cleared of food. Even if he hadn’t cared about further upsetting Shiro, he wouldn’t have left. With the first bite, his hunger returned full force and he devoured the food without thinking about, savouring the taste, which was so explosive due to his prolonged hiatus from eating. Shiro finished not long after he did and they proceeded to clean up. This, too, was a silent activity between them.

It was only after they finished and Keith moved to slip away to his bedroom that Shiro finally spoke up.

“Keith,” he started, causing the named person to stop in his tracks. “Is something wrong? You know you can always talk to me.”

Not turning around, Keith debated talking to Shiro about yesterday. Honestly, it frightened him. What if something was seriously wrong with him? In that case, it would be best to tell his brother about it so they can figure out a solution or something. “There is something,” he admitted, looking over at the other.

“Really?” Shiro’s face lit up with hope. Keith nodded. “What is it?”

He started to fidget, regretting that he had abandoned his blanket when he went to go help Shiro clean up from breakfast. His wings twitched as well and ung low to the ground, helping to betray his discomfort. “Something strange happened yesterday while Lance was helping me with my schoolwork,” he began. “For some reason, I felt really hot and out of breath and my wings appeared without me making them and there was so much fire. I don’t know what caused it. I think I might be sick.”

Frowning, Shiro tilted his head to the side. “Sick? But you don’t get sick.”

“I know,” he agreed, exasperated. “That’s why I’m really worried. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Circling around the counter, Shiro pressed the back of his hand to Keith’s forehead. “Well, it doesn’t feel like you have a fever. Do you feel sick right now?”

Keith shook his head. “No, not really,” he answered.

Removing his hand, Shiro examined him thoughtfully. After a minute, the corners of his mouth twitched upward into a poorly concealed amused smile, causing Keith to worry more so than he already was. “Could you tell me what all you felt again?”

For a moment, Keith regarded his sibling with suspicion, squinting towards him. “My wings appeared for no reason covered in fire, my entire body felt as though it was burning up, and my breathing and heart rate both sped up a lot,” he listed.

Shiro’s smile widened and his eyes sparkled with joy. He made a strange, high pitched squeak.

“Uh, Shiro, you’re kind of scaring me,” he stated, backing up away from the other.

Taking a deep breath, Shiro collected himself somewhat. “I’m sorry,” he apologised. “It’s just I thought I’d never see the day my little brother got his first crush!”

“Wait, what?” Keith froze in the archway leading out of the kitchen. “My first what now?”

“Your first crush!” Shiro exclaimed. “I’ll admit, I’m a little surprised. I wouldn’t think Lance would be your type, but it does kind of make sense in a way.”

“What? No.” Shaken out of his froze state, Keith resumed backing out of the kitchen. “That’s not possible. I’m aromantic,” he stuttered.

“You know, your idea of your romanticism and sexuality can change over time,” Shiro told him. “You settled on aromantic because you had no reason to believe otherwise. It could be just that you never experienced romantic feelings because you rarely left the house or talked with anyone outside of family.”

Unable to say anything, Keith whirled around and fled the kitchen, heading to his room.

Once there, he slammed the door behind him. Grabbing his phone, he flopped onto his bed. His thoughts were consumed with echoes of his brother’s words from their conversation. He didn’t want to believe it. It was weird.

Unlocking his phone, he went to a forum site that he made an account on about a year ago but never used. Logging in, he started making his first ever post on the website. The thing he liked about this site was the relative anonymity that it gave him. None of these people know or would know anything about him beyond his screen name and anything else he chose to disclose.

With his post made, he set down his phone to wait for a reply. As he waited, Shiro called him down for lunch. Although annoyed at the apparent hovering that his brother displayed towards him after what happened yesterday, he didn’t bother to complain as he made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Sitting down at the table, his mouth watered at the scent of melted cheese. Shiro set down a plate with a grilled cheese sandwich in front of him. He waited until Shiro sat down as well to begin his devouring of the sandwich.

Once finished, he threw his plate into the dishwasher, thanked Shiro for the food, then headed back upstairs to his room. There, he grabbed his phone and saw the notification telling him that someone had replied to his post.

> Quil:  
> With what you described, I would definitely say that sounds like a crush to. I’d also say it sounds like you’re demiromantic. Demiromantic is where there is only the possibility for romantic feelings to develop after you’ve developed a close platonic relationship with someone. Usually, demiromantic includes one of the other prefixes, such as demi-biromantic.

Keith throws his phone onto his bed, where it bounced after its initial landing. While the comment was enlightening, it was far from the answer he wanted nor did it ease his growing worries at all. Regardless, he knew he needed to speak to Shiro–actually speak to him this time.

Sighing, he exited his room. Not hearing any sounds from downstairs, he stopped in front of Shiro’s bedroom door and knocked.

Shiro didn’t leave him to wait outside the room for long, answering the door a mere second after he knocked. “Hey, what’s up?” he greeted.

“I’m not going to school tomorrow,” Keith blurted.

“What? Why?” he inquired, tilting his head to the side, eyes squinted in confusion.

“I can’t go to school tomorrow,” he reprimanded. “If what happened yesterday with Lance happens again at school, it would be a disaster and cause way too much trouble. I can’t risk it, Shiro.”

Shiro frowned at his declaration. “You can’t run from all your problems, Keith,” he sighed.

“But Shiro..” His lips curved down into a pout as he protested.

However, the other stood strong. “At some point, you will have to go back to school and deal with this,” Shiro informed him. “I’m not going to let you stop going to school because you are afraid of something that might happen.” Keith’s face fell, disappoint evident. “But, I will let you stay home Monday and Tuesday.”

Keith exhaled in relief, then sighed as he realised he had only two days to figure out some solution to his problem. “Okay,” he replied, content for the moment. It could’ve been a worse deal.

Now he just needed to figure out how to keep his wings from any sudden bursting into flames at school. What could possibly go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Feedback and constructive criticism is welcome


	17. How To Get This Song Out of My Head

When Lance awoke Sunday morning, he lied in bed for a few minutes before taking a deep breath and then hopping up out of bed. Picking up his phone, he dialed Hunk’s number and waited for to answer.

“Hello?” Hunk said after picking up.

“Hey,” Lance greeted. “So, I may have been a bit of an idiot these past few weeks.”

Hunk made a thoughtful humming noise. “How so?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, he grimaced somewhat. “Well, it’s about Pidge and their whole memory problem. See, last night, my mom told us this old story about a siren and I asked her if it was possible for sirens to erase memories and she said that it is.”

“Okay, so it’s a siren we’re working with,” Hunk surmised. “How does all that boil down to you being an idiot?”

Lance fidgeted with the bottom of his shirt. “Remember my birthday party? We managed to get some of their memory back for a short period of time.” Hunk hummed in acknowledgement. “Pidge told us the last thing they could remember was going to the choir room, meeting Allura, and then Allura singing to them.” He paused and sighed. “Allura is a siren. That’s what I failed to put together and why I’m an idiot.”

For a long minute, Hunk didn’t respond. “First off, you’re not an idiot. It just slipped from you mind. Happens to everyone all the time. Second, you haven’t heard that story in a while, right?”

“Yeah,” Lance answered in a small voice.

“Then it’s fine. No one expects you to know everything all the time,” Hunk assured him, easing some of his tension. “The important thing is we now know the cause and can find a way to reverse the magick. Is there a spell we can use to remove the effects of a siren’s song?”

“I was kind of hoping you might know one,” Lance told him. “Can’t you just bake a memory spell into a cookie again?”

“No, I can’t,” Hunk informed him. “Magick is very particular and none of the spells I know are made to work on a siren’s song. Is there anyway you can find a spell?”

“Well...my mom did give me permission to look through the books in her library for a solution,” Lance admitted.

“But?” Hunk questioned, sensing his hesitance.

“But I don’t know if we should,” he continued. “I mean, some of those books are ancient and can’t be replaced. What if we accidentally ruin one or something?”

“Lance,” Hunks sighed. “I know you’re worried, but this is for Pidge. Neither of us would willing damage a single one of those books. Besides, your mom gave us permission. She wouldn’t have if she thought we couldn’t be trusted in there.”

Nodding, Lance agreed. “Yeah, you’re right. Okay, meet at my later? Around one?”

“Yep,” Hunk confirmed. “I’ll head over after I finish this next batch of cupcakes.”

“Okay. See you later.”

“See you later.”

Content, Lance hung up the phone. He was glad that he had Hunk as a friend. The other knew him well and could ease his worries and concerns.

Shoving his phone into his back pocket, he left his room and headed downstairs for breakfast and to spend some time with his younger siblings as he did every Sunday.

\---

A knock sounded on the door and Lance moved to get up to answer, but Luis and Veronica began to complain, holding onto his arms.

“No, hermano,” Veronica whined. “Don’t leave! The show’s not over yet.”

“Stay, hermano, please,” Luis begged. “Finish watching with us and then you can go.”

Both gazed up at him with pleading eyes and matching pouts. “Please,” they pleaded in tandem.

Sighing, Lance pryed himself out of their grips. “Sorry, but that’s probably Hunk and we have plans to hang out today,” he explained, apologetic. “Next time, I promise I’ll stay for the whole show.”

“But Lance,” they both whined again, drawing out the a in his name.

He shook his head and stood. “Sorry. Next time, I promise,” he reiterated, back up towards the door. Turning around and opening it, he greeted Hunk. “Hey. Come on in.”

“Thanks. Hi Luis. Veronica,” Hunk greeted the two younger children upon entering the house. They both reluctantly waved and then turned back to the tv. Hunk turned to Lance. “What’s up with them?” He gestured towards the pair.

Lance closed the front door and shrugged. “They’re upset that you’ve dragged me away from watching the end of an episode of their favourite show,” he explained. Starting towards the stairs, he waved for Hunk to follow. “Let’s go get started on our research, shall we?”

“Yep, sounds good,” Hunk commented, following after him.

They headed up the stairs and down the hall to Lance’s mom’s library. Approaching the door, Lance hesitated, hand hovering above the door handle. Taking a deep and steady breath, he pushed down the handle and swung the door open. Air stale with the musty scent of books and tinged with a faint salty ocean water smell greeted them as they entered, closing the door behind them.

Hunk’s eyes scanned the room. “So, where should we start?” he asked.

Lance hesitated as he, too, examined the room filled to the max with bookshelves. Throughout the room, there appeared to be no amount of space wasted, only sparring what was necessary to navigate through the aisles of shelves and room for a few scattered chairs. “Um, I think she keeps related books together. So, if we can find at least one book about sirens, we’ll probably find the rest and be able to narrow down our search significantly,” he answered.

“Alright.” Hunk nodded in understanding. “I guess I’ll start over there–” he gestured over at the far right side of the library– “and you can start on the other side?”

“Yeah, sounds like a plan,” Lance replied, heading to the far left side of the room.

Tracing the spines of the books as he read each of their titles, he smiled at the warm and inviting atmosphere and scent of the entire library. With a mere glance around, he could tell all these books were well taken care of. All of them were in such good shape that they almost looked new despite their age, which only showed due to natural wear and tear that all well loved books exhibited. However, as he continued, his content and ease drifted away into worry. He was closing in on the rows Hunk was working through and had yet to see anything related to sirens. Fear began to gnaw at him as he and Hunk entered the same row.

Towards the end of his respective side, he passed a pale purple book with golden lettering. At first, he skimmed over it. But, after a moment, the title processed in his mind and he quickly back tracked, grabbing the book from the shelf. Flipping it over to stare at the cover, he gasped at the elegant, gold scrawled name. Gloria.

“Hunk,” Lance called out. “I found it.”

Tearing his gaze away from the book in his hands, he examined the books around where it had been. None of the other titles of nearby books mentioned anything about sirens. If not for his mom’s story, he wouldn’t have singled out any of the other books for holding the information they were looking for.

Hunk had come over and was looking over Lance’s shoulder at the book. “Is this the story your mom told you last night?” he asked. The other nodded in response, his blue eyes drifting back to the book in his hands. “Wow, I wouldn’t have noticed that book at all.” He glanced up at the shelf in front of them and regarded the other books. “So, I guess these are the books we should be looking through for information on sirens?”

“Yeah,” Lance confirmed, not looking up from the book in his hands. “They should have something that we can use.”

“Alright, let’s get started then.” Hunk began taking books off the shelves, stacking them up in his arms, and then carrying them over to a nearby table with two plush chairs on either side.

Reluctantly, Lance placed the book down on one of the chairs and started to help Hunk move the rest of the books over.

When they finished bringing over the books, they each took a seat on one of the chairs and reviewed the six or so stacks of five books each. Both of them sighed.

“Looks like we’ve got a lot of reading ahead of us,” Hunk commented.

Lance smiled slight, averting his gaze back to the story of Gloria. “Yeah,” he agreed.

Picking up a book at random, Hunk opened it. “I’ll start with this one, I guess.” He began to scan the pages.

Although Lance knew he likely wouldn’t find any answer in the book he held, curiosity and temptation to finish the story overwhelmed him. So, against his better judgement, he opened the book and found the place where his mom had left off the night before and began reading the next chapter.

~∞~

Gloria surfaced near a secluded section of the beach. Her heart jumped with excitement as a familiar voice called her name.

“Gloria, over here,” Fethawi called.

A bright smile illuminated her face, her cyan blue eyes brimming with affection for the man on the shore. Flicking her purple scaled tail, she swam over to the shore. Reaching out, Fethawi held her outstretched hand, the faint sign of a smile on his face. Though, for him, it may as well have been a full out grin.

“It’s been so long,” Gloria declared with a sigh. “I’ve missed you.”

Rolling his eyes, he shook his head. “We saw each other a week ago,” he informed her. “That’s hardly long at all.”

“I am aware,” she acknowledged. “But you were in another city far away from here. Knowing that you were so far away from the ocean and me was torture. Plus, your work is dangerous. I’d never know if you were hurt or even still alive!”

He squeezed her hand. “Dear, I’ve been doing this job for years. If anyone is getting hurt, it’s my targets.”

“I know,” Gloria reiterated. “I can’t help but worry though, my love.” Gazing up into his grey eyes, the urge to jump up and kiss him filled her. Without bothering to even attempt to exhibit any form of self-restraint, she released his hand and lifted herself out of the water. Beckoning him closer, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down into a passionate kiss. At first, he simply froze. But, as the kiss progressed, he relaxed and kissed her back. She released him a few moments later. They held each other’s gaze for a couple minutes until Fethawi averted his eyes and focused on the distant horizon. Sensing something was off, Gloria frowned. “Is something wrong, my love?”

“It’s...” He sighed. “I–just, have you ever...considered...maybe wanting to joining me on land?” His last few words were said in rapid succession of one another so that it took her a minute to understand.

When she did, she laughed, finding the question a bit silly. “Of course. What do you think I’m doing now?” She gestured to the ground beneath her.

Fethawi shook his head and distanced himself from her by a couple feet. “That’s not what I meant, but it doesn’t matter.”

Her mirth vanished in a heartbeat and she reached out, placing a hand on his shoulder, brows furrowed. “Darling, it does matter. Please, tell me what you meant,” she implored. “I didn’t mean to misunderstand.”

Hesitating, he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye then sighed, wilting under her pleading expression. “What I meant was you becoming human,” he clarified.

“Oh.” Pulling away, Gloria averted her gaze and stared off at the horizon as well. “Oh.”

A trace of guilt flashed in Fethawi’s eyes. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything,” he apologised. “I told you it didn’t matter.”

“No, it’s fine,” she assured him, grabbing his hand and twining her fingers with his, eyes still focused on the water. “It’s a valid question. I just need a minute.” She exhaled while lifting her head to stare up at the stars above them. “Yeah, I have thought about it. But it’s a tricky thing. There isn’t exactly any way to just...transform into a human. That’s some high class magick right there and sirens–nor any other mers– don’t have access to that kind of power on our own.” Without moving her head, she glanced over at Fethawi out of the corner of her eye. “So, it’s not a possibility. I’ve never seriously considered it an option.”

“Ah, okay,” he said, his eyes sliding down to his feet, which were fidgeting in the sand underneath them.

Lowering her head, her eyes softened, filling with sympathy. “My love.” Gloria sighed and brought his hand up to her mouth and then placed a soft kiss on the back of his hand. “I’m–”

“What if I knew someone who had the power to do it?” Fethawi asked, cutting her off and looking over at her with imploring grey eyes. “Would you consider it an option then?”

At the question, she let go of his hand in surprise. “I-I s-suppose,” she stuttered, unable to control her own vocal cords as she stumbled over her words. “B-but you’d h-have to k-know someone like th-that.”

“I do know someone like that,” he told her, leaning closer to her, a sort of eager yet desperate light in his eyes.

“I-I’d have to meet them,” she insisted, still reeling from the sudden information. “I don’t want a stranger using magick on me.”

“I’ll get them to come here. You can meet her and she’ll explain how it will work and everything.” Fethawi seemed to realise how close he was to her and backed up a bit. His eyes fell to their hands, side by side in the sand. “It’ll take her a couple days to get here. Then, you and her can talk.” Lifting up her hand with his own, he placed a kiss on the back of it.

Gloria gave him a tentative smile. Slowly removing her hand from his hold, she scooted towards the water. “Sorry, my love, but it’s time I should be on my way. If I stay much longer, my parents will notice,” she informed him. “Until tomorrow.”

“Until tomorrow, then,” he echoed.

Slipping back into the water, she swam off, disappearing underneath the surface, leaving him behind on the shore.

\---

  
The next night, Gloria broke the surface of the water in near their usual meeting spot. Upon seeing the beach deserted, she frowned. Never had Fethawi been late before. He always was there before her, waiting. Instincts screaming at her that something was wrong but unwilling to leave the area just in case, she distanced herself from the shore and lowered herself so everything below her eyes were submerged under water. Then, she waited and watched.

The night dragged on slowly. The moon had long passed its peak and was now sinking towards the horizon. Knowing she couldn’t wait around much longer, she turned away to go.

“Gloria!” Fethawi called out. “Wait!”

With one quick movement of her tail, she whirled around and propelled herself to the shore, joy coursing through her veins. Reaching the shore, she scrambled up on to the beach, turning the usually smooth and graceful action into a clumsy and hurried one. Lifting herself up as much as her strength allowed her to, she pulled him down and wrapped him in a fierce hug. “My love,” she cried. “I thought you weren’t coming! I waited so long!”

“I know. I’m sorry about that,” he apologised, hugging her with one hand, the other hidden behind his back. “It took longer than I thought it would to get back.”

Pulling back so she could look him in the eye, she frowned. “Get back from where?” she inquired.

“Getting these.” Revealing his previously hidden hand, a bouquet of flowers popped up between them.

Seeing the bouquet of flowers–all varying shades of purple with a few scattered cyan ones–she beamed. “These are for me?” she asked, amazement sparkling in her eyes. Fethawi nodded and beckoned for to take the bouquet. Doing so, she accepted the flowers and brought them up to her nose, their inter tangled scents filling her nostrils. Overjoyed, she pulled him back into a hug and planted a kiss on the corner of his lips.

“I’ll take that as meaning you like them,” he said in a teasing manner.

Gloria laughed, running a hand through his platinum blond hair. “I love them,” she informed him. “Thank you, my love. They are absolutely perfect. I love you.”

“You’re welcome,” Fethawi replied, a tiny smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Releasing him, she pulled back and beheld the flowers once again. Continuing to review them and run her fingers over the velvet-like petals, her smile faded into a frown, disappointment evident.

Fethawi brushed a strand of hair out of her face and tucked it behind an ear. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Tentatively, she met his gaze. “The flowers are beautiful and I love them,” she reiterated, “But I can’t keep them. They’ll wilt too quickly in ocean water.”

Realisation settled in and he looked away, shoulders slumping and a matching frown on his face. “Oh, that’s right,” he agreed. “I’m sorry. I did not think it through.”

Shaking her head, Gloria reached over and cupped a hand on his cheek, drawing his eyes back to her through gentle force. “No, it is not your fault. Don’t blame yourself, my love. The flowers really are a lovely gift,” she insisted.

Fethawi sighed. “I wanted to do something nice for you and give you a gift you would like, but I guess I failed.” His grey eyes darkened and he refused to meet her eyes.

“My love,” Gloria said, brushing her thumb across his cheek. “You didn’t fail. I do like it. We’ll just have to figure out someplace to put them for the time being.” She pushed the bouquet into his hands. “Why don’t you put them in your house? They’ll survive longer.”

“But,” he protested, grip tightening on the flowers, “Then I’ll have really gotten flowers for myself. That wouldn’t be right.”

She hushed him. “No, it won’t be like that at all. You’ll know you bought them for me, right?” He nodded. “And you’ll know why I wasn’t able to keep them myself. Therefore, you will know that you didn’t get them for yourself.”

“I suppose,” he said with some hesitancy. “But–”

Rolling her eyes, she leaned in and dragged him into a kiss. Fethawi’s arm with the flowers went limp and the flowers fell to the ground, a layer of sand instantly getting on them. For a minute, he didn’t move into the kiss at all, instead remaining relaxed and motionless. Then, he surged forward and deepened the kiss on his own. Mouth curling up with mischievousness, she leaned back, her hands–which were wrapped around his neck–bringing him down with her, until her back hit the sand and he was over her. Gloria kept them like that, not easing up her hold on him whatsoever, for as long as her lungs could handle. Once her lungs reached the point of screaming at her for oxygen, she let go.

They parted and stared at each other, panting into one another’s face. Gloria let out a breathless laugh.

“Moon above,” she sighed, affection filling her cyan eyes. “I love you so much.”

At her statement, Fethawi shivered. “I–” He found himself unable to complete his statement. With that failure to speak, his mouth closed and jaw tightened, unwilling to say another word.

Her eyes squeezed shut. Although he hadn’t finished his statement, she had a feeling she knew what he had been about to say. If only he wouldn’t have stopped himself. Fethawi moved off her and she stays still for a moment before sitting up. Glancing out at the horizon, she sighed.

“I have to go,” she announced. “The moon is about to set.”

“I–okay,” he said. Scooting away from her, his eyes drop to the ground and, under his breath, he mutters, “I wish we didn’t have to leave each other every night.”

At his quiet statement, she sucked in a deep breath of air. The conversation from yesterday made its way to the front of her thoughts. From the way he didn’t react, she didn’t think he knew she heard him and so didn’t say anything to let him know that she had. Instead, she merely slid into the water and bid him farewell before swimming off.

~∞~

A couple of nights after the one with the flowers, Gloria rose to the surface to find Fethawi standing on the beach next to two women–the taller of the two wore a long purple shirt, white pants, and black boots while the other wore a long-sleeved black dress that reached her ankles, a green scarf, and a black head scarf. Suspecting one of the two women was the sorceress that Fethawi had mentioned, she approached slowly, lowered in the water so only the top half of her head broke the surface. Stopping in the shadows, she listened in on their conversation.

“This siren, you really love her, don’t you?” the taller woman said.

“I-I want us to be able to be together,” Fethawi confessed. “Surely you understand, Schatten. I mean, didn’t you do something similar with Cipher over here?”

The shorter woman, who Gloria could assume was Cipher, clung to Schatten’s side and scowled at Fethawi. Her hands tightened their grip on her partner’s arm and she moved so the other hid her somewhat.

Schatten wrapped her arm around Cipher, pulling her closer to her side. “She doesn’t like to be reminded of that,” she hissed protectively. “Besides, that is different from giving a mer legs. Time separated us, not species.” Glancing out at the horizon, she narrowed her eyes. “When is your little mer going to arrive? Cipher hates staying out after dark.”

“Gloria shouldn’t be too much longer,” Fethawi responded, crossing his arms over his chest. “She’ll be here soon.”

Knowing that she couldn’t stay hiding forever and figuring now was as good a time as any, she ducked under the waves and swam a bit away then surfaced and started heading towards the group, making her approach obvious this time.

Fethawi spotted her and waved. “Gloria!”

A hesitant smile on her face, she approached the shore and lifted herself out of the water and onto the sand. “Hello,” she greeted. Casting a glance over at the two women, she asked, “Who are they?”

“This is Schatten, and that’s Cipher.” He pointed to each woman in turn. “Schatten is the one I told you about. Cipher is her partner.”

“Ah, hello Schatten and Cipher,” Gloria greeted politely.

Schatten smiled. “You must be Gloria. It’s nice to meet you. Fethawi has told me a lot about you.” Her golden eyes landed on Fethawi and a strange emotion flickered through them before she returned to Gloria, showing no sign of having done so. Giving her partner a gentle and comforting squeeze, she instructed her, “Come on, Cipher, greet her.” Scowling, clearly displeased, Cipher merely waved, saying nothing. Despite the forced and cold greeting from Cipher, Schatten didn’t appear upset and placed a kiss on her partner’s forehead. “I love you,” Schatten confessed. In response, Cipher made a few quick hand gestures that Gloria couldn’t catch nor discern the meaning of.

“Can we get to why you’re here?” Fethawi said, impatient. Schatten scowled at him while Cipher regarded him with a gaze of relief.

“Fine,” Schatten huffed. Moving her arm out of her partner’s hold–which caused Cipher to let out a stifled whimper–she sat down next to Gloria. “So, the first thing I have to ask is do you really want to do this?”

A moment of silenced passed before Gloria nodded. “Um, yes,” she answered, picking at a loose scale on her tail.

“Are you willing to pay the price?”

Tilting her head, Gloria inquired, “The price?”

Schatten nodded. “Yes, the price,” she confirmed. “With every spell like this, there is a price that must be paid. It is the spell that chooses the price, so you must be prepared for anything.” She looked over her shoulder and gave Cipher a sad smile. “What are you willing to pay for this to happen?”

Gloria’s eyes flickered between the pair. “What price did Cipher have to pay?” she asked.

At this, Cipher once again made a rushed and irritated series of hand gestures. Schatten watched them then shook her head. “I’m sorry, Cipher, but it’s important.” Turning back to Gloria, gold eyes reviewed the mer for a moment. “Cipher had to give up her voice. Are you ready to give up something like that? Are you prepared for it to take weeks, no, months of struggling with communicating the most basic of things until both of you can even hope to begin to understand each other once more? Because that could possibly be what the spell requires of you.” Schatten asked earnestly again, “What would you give up for the chance to walk beside your lover with no barriers?”

“I-I-” Gloria stared down at the ground, struggling to get herself to admit what she knew her answer was. “I-I don’t know.” Keeping her eyes on the ground, she didn’t want to look up and see disappointment in Fethawi’s eyes.

“Hey–” Schatten placed a comforting hand on her shoulder– “It’s fine to not know right now. It is a huge life decision. You’ll need some time to think this over. We all understand.”

Smiling at the understanding Schatten exhibited towards her, Gloria nodded. “Thank you. If you don’t mind, could I have some time to consider this?”

“Of course,” Schatten assured her. Removing her hand, she stood up. “Remember you don’t have to make a decision today.” Walking over to Cipher–who immediately reattached herself to her partner’s arm–Schatten reviewed Fethawi for a moment. “We’re going to give her time and will return in a couple minutes. Do not try to coerce her into making the decision you want her to,” she instructed coldly. Guiding Cipher away, the two of them headed over to a nearby streetlight.

When they were gone and out of earshot, Fethawi sat down next to Gloria. “Hey,” he said.

Gloria’s eyes didn’t move from the ground. “Are you upset with me?” she wondered.

“Over what?” he inquired.

“That I have to think this over,” she responded.

For a couple moments, he didn’t say anything. Then, he sighed. “Of course I’m not,” he told her. “I didn’t expect you to up and agree to this right from the beginning.

“I know you want me to do this, but–” she sighed– “I’m afraid. What will be taken from me as payment for this?”

“I don’t know,” he answered truthfully.

Leaning against his side, she sighed. “I love you.”

Saying nothing in response, he draped an arm over her shoulders and held her against him. They fell into silence, each of their minds whirling.

Hearing the others returning, Fethawi dropped his arm and stood up, brushing the sand off his clothes. He stepped back so that Schatten could reclaim her place beside Gloria.

“So,” Schatten began once she had gotten Cipher to release her and settled down, “What have you decided?”

Looking over her shoulder at Fethawi then turning back to Schatten, she nodded. “I want to go through with this. I’m ready,” she asserted.

“Now?” Schatten questioned.

Gloria nodded again. “Yes, if you can.”

For a few minutes, Schatten merely regarded her with surprise. Shaking her head, she stood up. “No, we can do it now, if you’re really certain.”

“I am,” Gloria insisted.

“Alright then.” With a wave of her hand, a floating book appeared in front of Schatten with a puff of smoke. “Just a warning, this might be painful. Excruciatingly so.”

“Wait, wh–”

Schatten did give Gloria enough time to respond. Instead, she began chanting in a foreign tongue and Gloria’s words descended into shrieks of agony. Fethawi took a step towards her, but Cipher held him back and shook her head. Crossing his arms, Fethawi huffed.

Continuing to chant, grey sigils appeared all over Schatten’s body, glowing brightly in the darkness. Gloria continued to scream, unable to stop the sounds from escaping her throat. She could feel her bones snapping and rearranging in her tail. Her tail ripped apart into two. Scales were torn from wherever they were on her body and fell to the ground, leaving thousands of open, bleeding wounds. The skin around her gills stretched and contorted. To make it worse, the sand rubbed in her wounds as she fell to the ground and her body spasmed violently. “Stop,” she managed to gasp out between screams, but Schatten continued, unable to stop.

After some time, her hearing stopped and complete darkness consumed her vision.

\---

Stirring some time later, she shielded her eyes against the sun. Blinking, she reviewed her surrounds. At the moment, she was in a room decorated in the same white background with blue flowers everywhere. The walls had the pattern. The bed she sat on had the pattern. Everything had that same pattern.

Looking down at herself, she examined her new legs, rather conflicted on how she felt about them. Moving them, Gloria mulled over the strange sensation of being able to move each one separately.

As she was preoccupied with her new limbs, the door opened and Cipher entered the room, carrying a tray with food and a glass of water. Jumping in surprise at the other’s appearance, Gloria attempted to pretend she hadn’t been doing exactly what she had been doing. Cipher cracked a smile–the only smile Gloria had seen the pale-skinned woman give.

“I-uh, hello,” Gloria greeted.

Cipher placed the tray down on the bedside table. Her hands moved as though she were about to speak, but they froze and she frowned as she realised Gloria would be unable to understand. Instead, she simply offered a small wave in response to the siren’s greeting. Then, she turned around and headed back out of the room.

“Wait,” Gloria called, causing Cipher to pause in the doorway and turn around. “Did you–uh–did you ever regret your decision? You know, at the beginning when you were trying to adjust?”

Sending her a sympathetic smile, Cipher nodded.

“Oh, okay. Uh, thank you,” Gloria replied after a moment of awkward silence as Cipher appeared to be waiting to see if she would ask anything else.

Giving her a curt nod in farewell, Cipher exited the room, closing the door behind her.

Once again alone in the room, Gloria glanced over at the food. Her stomach growled and so she shifted closer to the table and tentatively started to pick at and nimble on the food. Nearing the last bits of food, Schatten entered the room.

“Good morning,” the sorceress greeted, perching on the bed next to her. “How are you feeling?”

Placing the cookie in her hand down on the tray, Gloria shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”

“What do you mean?” Schatten inquired.

“It’s weird,” she explained, staring down at her legs. “You know, they’re different. It’s different.”

Nodding, Schatten agreed. “Yeah, I understand what you mean. It takes some adjusting to get used to such a big change.”

Not looking up, Gloria asked, “Do you know what the price was?”

She shrugged and leaned back, her arms behind her and holding her up. “At the very least, it’s not a visible or noticeable thing.” Giving her a scrutinizing look, she shrugged once more. “Do you feel any different?”

“Not really,” she answered. “Though, my...legs do feel a little...tingly, I guess would be the best word to describe it.”

Schatten made a humming noise in the back of her throat. “Interesting,” she commented almost to herself. “That could just be the effects of you now having legs, but it could be part of the price. Can you walk?”

An embarrassed flush rose to Gloria’s cheeks as she admitted, “I haven’t tried yet,” in a small voice.

“Well, now is as good a time as any,” Schatten declared, hopping up off the bed and holding out her hands for Gloria to grab on to. “Come on.”

Hesitating, Gloria placed her hands on the sorceress’s. Not giving her any time to prepare, Schatten tightened her hold on her and lifted her up off the bed. Almost instantly, Gloria’s new and unused legs buckled and she fell.

“Whoops,” Schatten said, easing Gloria back up to her feet, now holding on tighter to make sure she didn’t fall.

Gloria wobbled in place, struggling to keep herself standing. “This is difficult,” she said through gritted teeth, all her focus on not falling again.

Schatten laughed. “It just takes practice and time,” she assured. “Don’t worry, the spell will help things progress faster. Now, come on.” She started moving backwards, not lessening her grip on the other.

“Wait, what?” Gloria exclaimed, fear lighting her gaze as the other moved further.

“One foot in front of the other,” she instructed. “We’re going to walk around this room until you aren’t struggling anymore. Again, one foot in front of the other.” Hesitantly, Gloria lifted one foot an inch above the ground and shuffled it forward ever so slightly. Schatten glowered at her. “Raise your foot higher and move it farther.” Following her instructions, unwilling to dare disobey, Gloria added another inch to each of her movements. “More,” Schatten demanded. “We’ll keep going until you are truly walking.” Frowning, Gloria forced herself to take another step. With each step, she moved farther and Schatten seemed to be more content. Slowly, as she moved more, her legs began to become more steady and, soon, they were no longer shaking.

“I’m doing it,” she exclaimed.

Schatten grinned. “Yes, you are.” Then, she let go of Gloria’s hands. A surprised and feared-lined expression flashed on Gloria’s face. “Now, do it without me helping.”

On mostly steady legs, Gloria hesitated before taking one step. Then, she took another. And another.

“I’m doing it,” she declared, beaming.

Schatten watched her and nodded. “Indeed you are. See, I told you this would go by quickly with the spell helping out.”

“Thank you,” Gloria said, walking over–albeit shakily–and hugging her. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re very welcome,” Schatten replied, tentatively placing her arms around the other. “I’m always happy to help out a friend.”

Releasing her, Gloria’s eyes lit up. “I have to show Fethawi!” She started towards the door.

Before she could open it, Schatten stopped her. “Wait, I can’t let you go out with what you’re–” she paused– “not wearing.”

“Huh?” She appeared confused. “What do you mean?”

Grabbing hold of her arm, she guided her over to the closet. “Let’s get you dressed in something nice.” Letting go of the other’ arm, she turned to face the closet and threw open the doors. Reviewing the various articles of clothing, she grinned. “I’ve not had the chance to help someone pick out a style for themself. This will be fun!”

\---

Gloria emerged from the bathroom and spun around. Her long sea green dress moved with her in a light and breezy manner. Smiling, she giggled, content with the outfit.

“That looks perfect,” Schatten declared, examining her. “Do you like it?”

Nodding early, she replied, “Yes! I love it.”

“Good. Now, let’s go show Fethawi.” She guided her over to the door leading into the hall. “Oh, I can’t wait to see his reaction to this.”

Exiting the bedroom, they wandered down the hall to the living room, where Fethawi and Cipher sat in silence, each appearing preoccupied with a book. Upon hearing their footsteps approach, Cipher glanced up. Reviewing Gloria’s new outfit, she nodded and signed to Schatten.

Beaming, Schatten signed back. If she had spoken, she would have alerted Fethawi to their presence and that wouldn’t have been any fun. Instead, she had Gloria back up so she wouldn’t be immediately seen and then cleared her throat, grabbing his attention.

“I think I did a good job picking this outfit out for her,” she declared. “Come here, Gloria.”

Stepping out of the hall and into the living room, Gloria–along with Schatten–watched Fethawi for his reaction.

His grey eyes landed on her and went wide. For a couple moments, he said nothing, which almost made Gloria nervous. Then, he broke his silence. “You look–” he paused to search for the right word– “Beautiful”

At the compliment, Gloria beamed. “Thank you,” she replied, twirling around to see the dress spin with her again. “I love these human clothes! They’re so much fun!”

He gave her a faint but affectionate smile. “I’m glad to hear that.”

Walking over, Schatten grabbed Cipher’s hand and lifted her up off the chair she was sitting in. “Come on, let’s give the two of them some alone time,” she told her. Turning to Fethawi and Gloria, she smiled. “We’ll probably be heading around soon. See you two around some time. Have fun.” She raised a suggestive eyebrow towards Fethawi.

“Thank you,” Gloria replied, appearing to miss the silent exchange between the two of them.

With that, Cipher and Schatten left the house.

\---

Many nights later, easing the door open, Gloria slipped out, making sure to minimise the amount of noise she made doing so. Glancing over her shoulder into the darkened living room, she took a deep breath and stepped outside into the night, closing the door quietly behind her. Hiking up the long skirt of her dress, she ran barefoot down the street, heading to the beach.

When her feet hit the sand, the ocean’s call grew stronger, begging her to go towards it. Enchanted, she drifted over to where the sea and shore met. There, she sat down and folded her legs beneath her, not caring how the water dampened the cloth of her dress. From the water, two figure emerged and approached her.

“Hello, mom, dad,” she greeted.

“Hi dear,” her mom said, returning the greeting.

“Gloria,” her dad replied, nodding his head every so slightly.

“How are you?” she asked. “What’s been going on?”

“We’re well,” her mom told her. “But–” she sent a hesitant look to Gloria’s dad.

“The group is moving in two days time,” he stated.

“What?!” Gloria cried. “You’re leaving? And so soon? Without warning?” Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes and started to roll down her cheeks.

Her mom gave her a commiserate look. “I’m sorry, dear,” she apologised.

“You can’t leave,” Gloria told them. “You can’t. I don’t want to have to say goodbye.”

“You could come with us,” her mom suggested, placing a hand on the other’s leg.

“But what about Fethawi?” she asked through sniffles.

“Dear, you don’t belong on the land,” her mom said. “In your heart, you must know that. Why else would the ocean call so strongly towards you? It might be best for you to return.”

Unable to say anything, Gloria sobbed into her hands. As much as she hated it, she could understand where her mom was coming from. The ocean’s song filled her very blood. No matter what she did, she would never be able to escape it. “But I love him,” she protested weakly.

“Does he love you?” her mom asked. “Has he ever said that to you?”

Crying miserably, she shook her head. “He...he hasn’t,” she confessed. “But he must. Why...why else would he...he give me a chance on land?”

“To lure you away from the source of your power and one day turn on.” Her mom slid up onto the sand beside her. “Sirens are highly valued by humans, you know that.”

“No,” she cried. “You...you’re lying.”

Not saying anything more, her mom wrapped her arm around Gloria’s shoulders and hugged her in comfort. Burying her face into her mom’s shoulder, Gloria sobbed more.

“I want him to say it,” she confessed. “I want him to so badly, but I can’t pressure him into saying it. Why won’t he tell me he loves me?”

Her mom shushed her and rubbed her back. “Because he doesn’t,” she replied. “Come home to us. Please.”

Sniffling, she peeled herself out of the older woman’s arms. “Let me think about it, please,” she requested.

Nodding, her mom conceded. “Of course. But remember you have a limit. We leave the day after tomorrow.”

“I know.” Falling back into her mom’s embrace, she told them, “I love you.”

“We love you as well,” her dad said, still in the water, seeming uncertain of what else to do and how to comfort his daughter.

Pulling away, Gloria stood up. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she informed them. “You’ll have my answer then.” With a wave, she set off back to Fethawi’s house, leaving the beach behind but carrying the memories of the events that had happened there.

\---

The sun hit her face the following morning. Opening her eyes, she sat up and stretched her stiff limbs, yawning as she did so. Blinking, she realised that Fethawi had already left the bed. Everything that had happened last night hit her in a rush and a tear escaped down her cheek. Wiping it away before it could fall, she took a steadying breath. Standing up, she exited the bedroom.

Wandering into the hall, Gloria allowed her nose to guide her to the kitchen, following the scent of bacon and eggs. Eyes landing on Fethawi, she averted her gaze towards the ground and walked over to the island counter where she pulled out a stool and sat down. While she had attempted to be quiet, he heard her as show with a quick glance thrown over his shoulder. Moving away from the stove, he grabbed a plate and placed it down in front of her. The sight of her favourite human food almost made everything better, but she couldn’t forget everything her mom had said the night before.

“Thank you,” she muttered, picking up a fork and starting to eat.

A moment later, he sat down across from her with his own breakfast. However, he didn’t start eating. Instead, he watched her. “Is something wrong?” he inquired.

About to shake her head, she paused and placed her fork down. “Do you love me?” she asked, watching him for his reaction.

At her question, he nodded. “Of course,” he replied. Despite his statement, she noted that he didn’t look at her.

“Would you tell me it directly, in your own words?” she requested. “Say you love me.”

His mouth fell open but no words came out. Clamping his mouth shut, his eyes shimmered with apology.

Turning away, she gazed out the nearby window. “If I wanted you to stop doing your job, what would you do?” she wondered, her voice quiet.

Fethawi stared at her for a moment. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “That’s the only work I’ve ever really done. If I didn’t do it, I don’t know what I would do. At this point, I don’t think I’m capable of any other work.”

Gloria frowned but didn’t comment. Standing up, she walked off to her own bedroom, closing the door behind her. Once alone, she fell back onto the bed, eyes looking up at the ceiling. Her mom’s words from the night before invaded her thoughts and a train of what if’s followed them. What if her mom was right? What if he wouldn’t say it because it wasn’t true for him? What if...

The storm of worries left her breathless. Shoving her face into one of the pillows decorating the bed–which didn’t quite help her breathlessness–she groaned. Discarding the pillow off to the side, she got up and head to the bathroom attached to the bedroom. Turning on the faucet, she leaned down and splashed some cold water into her face, which helped relax her the moment the water made contact with her skin. Standing back up, she opened her eyes and regarded her own reflection. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself against the intrusive thoughts her mind fed her. This was a decision to be made without her mom’s words influencing her. But she couldn’t stop from doubting Fethawi’s affections. Their conversation earlier had not helped much, although. Perhaps it would be best to leave.

Staring into the mirror, she gazed into her own blue eyes. Her instincts were torn between staying and going. A great longing for the ocean filled her the longer she weighed her options.

After a long time, where she stood motionless in front of the mirror, she sighed and made her decision. Gloria belonged in the ocean with the waves above her. Land was no place for a creature born of water. But, even as she made her decision, her heart spoke up. She couldn’t just leave. No, that would not be right.

Taking a deep breath, she exited the bathroom and then the bedroom. Walking down the hall, she entered the living room and found Fethawi lying on the couch, reading a book. Pulling a chair up in front of the couch, she perched upon it.

Taking notice of her presence, Fethawi looked over at her, putting his book down. “Yes?”

Smiling down at him, she shushed him. “Just listen,” she instructed. Then, Gloria started to sing, soft and low. Unlike most other siren songs, hers produced a lighter and less heated atmosphere, her heart not set on what she was doing. The rich, loved-filled, warm air consumed the room. Inhaling deeply and closing his eyes, Fethawi let out a long sigh and relaxed into the sofa more than she had seen before in all the time they’d known each other. Knowing that he was thoroughly enchanted, she cut off her singing. Leaning in, she spoke softly. “Fethawi.” He hummed, acknowledging that he heard her. “My love, open your eyes for me.” Following her command, he gazed up at her with clouded grey eyes. Caressing his cheek, she forced a smile on her face and drank in the sight of him, wanting to memorise his appearance.

Reaching up, Fethawi placed a hand on her cheek, miming her own actions. “You are sad,” he stated. “Why?”

Gloria leaned into his touch, closing her eyes. “Because I must leave you,” she replied.

“You don’t have to,” he told her.

Laughing quietly, she peeled away from his touch, opening her eyes as she did so. “Fethawi, my love, listen to me,” she requested. His eyes locked onto her own. “Forget me.” Holding back her tears, she forced magick into her voice. “Forget me. Forget every memory you have of me. Forget until there is no trace of me anywhere in your mind, heart, or life.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “Forget and rest.”

Fethawi’s arm dropped and his eyes fluttered shut, a shiver running down his spine, his breathing falling steady as her commands settled in. Softly, to the point where she almost missed it, he said, “I love you.” Then, he fell asleep.

As her magick faded and the air dropped in temperature, his words echoed in Gloria’s ears. Unable to stop them, tears poured down her cheeks and she sobbed. Cursing fate, she placed a gentle kiss on Fethawi’s forehead then stood up and fled. Fled the room. Fled the house. Fled from Fethawi and Fate’s cruelty.

Running to the beach, she wiped away her tears as much as she could. The last thing she wanted was for her parents to see her in such a state.

Once her feet hit the sand, she slowed from an all out sprint to a mere jog and continued to slow as she drew nearer to the water. Discarding her dress and anything tying her to land, she walked out into the ocean until the waves reached her shoulders. Refusing to glance back, she dove under the surface.

~∞~

Lance closed the book. Staring straight ahead, he released a long breath, his mind running over everything the pages had told him.

Hunk finished his own book–now on his fourth since he skimmed the books instead of completely reading them as Lance had done–and glanced over at him. “Find anything?” he inquired.

Blinking, he shook his head and placed the book aside. “Nothing helpful,” he replied. “Though, it did kind of confirm sirens can erase memories.”

“Kind of?” Hunk questioned, exchanging his book for another.

“Yeah,” he confirmed, doing the same. “I mean, it is an old story, so some things might not be fully accurate.”

“Ah, that’s true,” he commented. “But that’s all you learned?”

“Yep,” Lance answered. “Unfortunately.”

Opening their next books, they each began to scan through the pages for the information they were seeking. Every so often, whenever they finished a book, they would announce their disappointing results.

“Nothing,” Lance sighed, discarding one and taking another.

“Nope,” Hunk announced a few moments later.

“Nada.”

“Disappointment.”

“Oh, wow. Nothing, again.”

“More disappointment.”

“Muy triste.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Where in the world is this information?”

“No–wait! I found it!” Lance announced finally. He held the book up above his head and cried, “Victory!”

Closing his current book, Hunk put it down and leaned over. “Oh, what does it say?” he wondered.

Placing the book back down on his lap, he began to read the passage aloud.

> A siren’s song is one of the most ancient types of magicks and, as such, is incredibly powerful. However, despite its long known, little is known about the specifics of how it works or of how to reverse its effects upon enchanted persons. This lack of information is largely due to the secretive nature of most sirens. Although there are many known ways to escape enchantment in the first place, only two methods have been proven to reverse a siren’s song. The first–and only completely guaranteed–method is to get the siren who sang the song to remove the enchantment themself. As sirens are not always willing to do this, a second alternative method exists. A practiced sorcerer may be able to remove the effects of a song through the use of any of the more advanced and complicated memory spells. When attempting this method, keep in mind it may not always succeed.

Looking up and over at Hunk, Lance wondered, “Do you think you could do that?”

Hunk pursed his lips and shrugged. “Maybe. I can certainly try. But do you really think Allura wouldn’t agree to remove the spell?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “What I do know is that there must’ve been a reason she did it. That makes me doubt that she would remove it if she thinks that her initial reason for doing it still stands.” Bookmarking the page he’d read aloud, Lance stood up and wandered over to the shelf which previously housed all the books they had been perusing through.

“Hmm, you have a point. That would make that option difficult,” Hunk commented. Also standing up, he grabbed a couple books from one of the stacks around the table–in addition to the book he was reading before Lance found the passage–and carried them over to the shelf Lance stood in front of. Going to replace the books on the shelf, Lance stopped him.

“You can’t just throw them back on the shelf,” Lance scolded. “My mom had them in a specific order and I will make sure they stay in that order.”

Handing over the books in his arms, Hunk backed away. “Sorry,” he apologised. “I’ll bring the books over and you can organise them then. I didn’t make note of the order.”

“Thank you,” Lance replied, accepting the books offered to him.

While Hunk went back and forth retrieving books, Lance placed each one in its estimated location. As he received more books, he shifted the ones on the shelf to make certain they were all in place. With the placement of the last book, he stepped back to review his work. Everything appeared to be in order. Content with his work, he dusted off his hands and started towards the door.

“Come on, we’ve been in here for a couple hours,” Lance said. “Let’s go get some food. Then, we can start looking for a spell you can use.”

“Yeah, food sounds good,” Hunk stated, his stomach growling at the very mention of food.

Exiting the library, they head down to the kitchen for food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Constructive criticism and feedback is welcome!
> 
> P.S. raise your hand if you're gonna die this friday *raises hand*


	18. Not An Update

~Hey everyone~

I want to apologise for missing not only one, but now two updates. Last time, I was caught off guard by the notification that it was time to update and couldn't find time between work to prepare the next chapter to be posted. Yesterday, I was supposed to update as well, but I'd forgotten to do so before going to bed. I told myself I would update today but, alas, some personal issues popped up unexpectedly and I can't find the motivation to properly update. I figured the least I could do was inform you all of what was happening. Additionally, I am starting to dislike much of what I've written for this story. I don't want to go back and edit or rewrite anymore than I already have as, at this point, I want to finish this so I can move on to my next project. I will finish this story. After all, I am writing the last chapter currently and it would be a shame to abandon this project after I've invested so much time and sleepless nights into it. So, you all can look forward to the next chapter on February 13th. Again, I apologise for this all.

~Thank you for reading and hopefully understanding this all~

~My sincerest apologies for the delay in updating~

~I truly appreciate all the support I've gotten on this story, support I never expected to receive when I started posting this~


	19. The Retrieval of Hidden Memories: Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm back. I've got most of the issues I was dealing with sorted out and so I should be back on my regular every three weeks update schedule. Thank you so much for being patient with me. I really appreciate it <3
> 
> P.S. anyone else really dislike Valentine's day and the whole mess around it?

Lance, Hunk, and Pidge walked over to the table where Allura, Shiro, and Matt sat. Taking their usual seats, Lance frowned down at the empty chair between him and Shiro.

“Where’s Keith?” he wondered.

Shrio glanced up from his lunch and gave Lance a hesitant yet amused smile. “He’s at home. He wasn’t feeling well,” he answered. His smile dropped as he remembered something. “Oh, that reminds me. I need to text him to make sure he eats something.” Pulling out his phone, he typed up a quick text and sent it.

“He’s not sick again, is he?” Hunk asked, concerned.

Allura placed a comforting hand on Shiro’s shoulder. “Did something happen?” she inquired. “You don’t normally have to text him to remind him to eat.”

Putting his phone away, he shook his head. “He’s not sick–at least, not in that way. And I’m texting him because, on Saturday, he ended not eating anything and barely drinking anything either. He had a nightmare and then some other stuff happened apparently.”

Remembering his visit to Keith’s house on Saturday, a wave of guilt washed over Lance. He might have caused that in some part. “Oh, that’s–uh–unfortunate,” he said. “Sorry.”

Shiro sighed. “Yeah,” he agreed. “I just wish he would let me help him.” Another sigh escaped him. “But he wants to work it out himself.”

Allura leaned over and hugged him. “I’m sure he’ll figure it out and, if he does need help, he’ll ask for it,” she assured him. “He’ll be okay.”

“I hope you’re right,” he said, leaning into the hug.

After that, the other three people at the table–Matt, Hunk, and Pidge–jumped in and redirected the conversation. Lance was grateful for it and thoughts Shiro might be as well based on his reaction. They spent the rest of lynch eating and joking around, teasing each other. By the end of lunch, the atmosphere had shifted to a more lighthearted one than how it had been at the start.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the period. Standing up, they all bid farewell to each and split off into two groups, heading to their respective classes.

Along the way to chemistry, Lance decided now would be best time to ask Pidge. “Hey, Pidge.”

The named person glanced over at him. “Yes?”

“Want to hang out at Hunk’s house after football practice?” he asked, hoping he sounded casual.

“Why?” they inquired. “And did Hunk agree to this?” Pidge raised a questioning brow at Hunk.

As soon as Hunk opened his mouth, Lance shook his head, knowing the other would give it away and that might not be the best idea.

“I’m working on some memory spells, you know, baking them into some pastries and I wanted you and Lance to try them,” Hunk explained. “And yeah, I did agree as it was kind of my idea.”

“Oh, sure.” Lance gave Pidge a surprised, wide-eyed stare. He hadn’t expected it to be that simple. “What kind of memory spells?”

“They are supposed to improve your memory and help you remember things you’ve forgotten more easily,” he elaborated. “I’m working with some more advanced spells and want the practice.”

“Sounds cool,” Pidge commented. Hunk hummed and nodded in agreement. “I’ll definitely come with you guys after Lance’s practice.”

“Great. Awesome,” Lance said, recovering from his earlier surprise at the ease with which Pidge agreed. He let out a bit of a forced laugh and nudged them in the side. “I would hate to be the only guinea pig.”

A brief flicker of hesitation appeared in their eyes–causing Lance to fear that he had overdone it–but, then,they chuckled and shoved him much more harshly than he had them. “Nah, where’s the fun in that? Only having one test subject is boring.” Amusement shimmered in their golden-eyed gaze. “Though, I’ll of course allow you to try the food first. That way you’ll show any side effects first.”

“Ah, such a good friend,” Lance replied.

“You know it.” Pidge laughed. “I’m the best.”

\---

“Wait here and I’ll bring the car around,” Lance instructed his friends, running out into the parking lot after they’d left football practice. He didn’t give either of them the chance to object or question him. Hopping into his car, he threw his bag into the passenger's seat and started the car, backing out of the spot. Pulling up by the curb in front of his friends, he rolled down the window and said, “Get in, losers. We’ve got some magickal baked goods to eat.”

“You’re terrible,” Pidge remarked, opening the back door and sliding into the backseat. “And if anyone is the loser here, it’s you for saying that.”

Hunk let out a short laugh and shook his head. He followed Pidge into the backseat.

Once everyone got situated, Lance started driving to Hunk’s house. About halfway to their destination, Lance turned the volume on the radio down.

“So, Hunk,” he started, “What kind of sweets did you bake for us today?”

“Nothing special,” Hunk replied. “Just some chocolate chip cookies. I didn’t want to do anything with a taste that would take away from the magick nor try out a new recipe just in case it didn’t work out right. After all, this is a practice trial for the spell.”

“That makes sense,” Lance commented.

“Hmm, you know what you should’ve made if you wanted to bake cookies?” Pidge asked.

All three of them answered in unison. “Peanut butter cookies!” Then, they broke out in laughter.

“I’m that predictable, huh?” Pidge mused.

“Only when it comes to your favourite food,” Hunk told them.

Lance pulled the car to a stop, parking in Hunk’s driveway. “Alright, we’re here,” he announced. “Now get out.”

“You’re so nice to us,” Pidge told him as they and Hunk both got out of the car.

Climbing out himself, Lance grinned. “Just doing my job.”

“That’s a pretty terrible job,” Hunk remarked. Pidge laughed and Lance deflated somewhat but laughed regardless.

“Anyway,” Lance said, changing the subject. “Let’s go inside and eat some cookies!”

“Cookies!” Pidge cheered, punching their fist in the air.

“Alright, slow down,” Hunk told them, leading them all up to the house. “There are enough to go around.”

Unlocking the front door, they entered the house and headed straight to the kitchen. Lance and Pidge sat down at the table while Hunk went over to the counter, where a tupperware box sat, filled to the brim with chocolate chip cookies. On top of the large box sat a smaller one with only two individual cookies. Grabbing two small plates, Hunk placed a cookie from the small box on each, almost too carefully to not be suspicious in some way, but Pidge didn’t say anything. He then gave each of them one of the plates.

“Eat up,” he instructed. “And don’t be afraid to give me your honest opinions.”

“Thank you,” Pidge and Lance chimed.

Lance took a tentative bit of his cookie, his eyes watching Pidge eat their own. At first, nothing appeared to change. Pidge bit into the cookie and made a content noise in the back of their throat, proclaiming, “It’s delicious!” Although Hunk beamed at the compliment, he and Lance continued to watch them eat, worry expanding in their chest as the seconds ticked by. Popping the last of the cookie into their mouth, something changed in Pidge’s expression. Their eyes dialated to the point where their golden irises were obscured and their body stiffened, frozen, and the room fell into silence. Lance and Hunk waited with baited breath.

After a long period of silence, Pidge blinked and their eyes returned to normal. “I...remember,” they said, slowly. Both Hunk and Lance let out matching sighs of relief.

“What all do you remember?” Hunk inquired, leaning on the countertop, arms folded.

Continuing to speak in a slow and drawn out manner, they replied. “I remember the choir room. I remember finding Allura. She handed me a notebook. I remember her singing and then...nothing,” they rattled off, staring straight ahead into space.

“That’s all?” Lance asked.

They nodded. “Yeah. Going to the choir room, looking for a notebook, meeting Allura–who handed me the notebook–then singing. I can tell by the gaps there is a ton still missing, but I have enough to be aware of it.” Pidge’s eyes flickered over to the other box of cookies. “Do you think I would remember more if I had more of those?”

Hunk glanced down at the tupperware full of cookies and shook his head. “No, it wouldn’t. It’s a one and done kind of thing,” he explained. “If it didn’t completely work the first time, it won’t do so at all.” His lips curved into a frown. “Plus, that was the only one baked with that spell. It’s a powerful one and I couldn’t manage to do it more than once even if I had any sort of foresight. Sorry,” he apologised.

Pidge frowned as well but shook their head. “No, it’s fine,” they told him. “I was just curious. Don’t push yourself to exhaustion.”

“Yeah, don’t sweat it,” Lance echoed, noting how truly tired Hunk looked.

“Do you want the rest of your memories back?” Hunk inquired. “Or are you content with what you’ve gotten restored?”

Their eyes narrowed, thoughtful. “I want them back,” they stated. “It irritates me to have those gaps in my memory and to be aware of them. Plus, I want to know why she did it. So, I at least want to talk to her about it.” Glancing between Lance and Hunk for a moment before settling on Hunk, they asked, “Is there another way to get my memories back?”

“The only other way is for Allura to remove the spell herself,” Lance informed them, pushing his plate away and resting his arms on the table.

“Do you think she would?” Pidge wondered.

The other two glance at each other, hesitation in their expressions. Hunk shrugs and opted to say, “Possibly,” at the same time that Lance replied, “Probably not.” They stare at each other.

“I mean,” Lance went on to elaborate his answer, “It can be dangerous to out yourself as a hybrid. Even if it’s not a common everyday talked about thing, everyone knows that it can be risky and lead to a lot of issues. Besides, she did it for a reason. Will she really agree to undo it if she believes the reason still holds?”

“Well, we don’t know why she did it,” Hunk refuted. “It could’ve been for something that’s now irrelevant. Or we could convince her that it’s irrelevant.”

“Should we have a back-up plan for if she refuses?” Pidge asked, drawing the room’s attention. “Like force her to undo it or something?”

“How would we force her to remove it?” Lance wondered, a tad nervous over what the answer might be.

“Exploiting and using her natural weaknesses against her” Pidge stated, matter of factly. “All magickal creatures and, by extension, hybrids have them.”

Hunk frowned, skeptical. “But how will we figure out her weaknesses?”

Swallowing, Lance placed it right as Pidge’s eyes fell on him. He started to shake his head as they nodded. “No, absolutely not,” he refused.

“Lance,” Pidge practically pleaded.

Hunk’s gaze switched between the pair. “What am I missing here?”

Staring at them directly in the eye, Lance explained. “Allura’s a siren. I’m a mer. Since we’re both the same species, with just some minor differences in abilities, we should share the same general weaknesses.”

“Come on, Lance,” Pidge begged. “With the knowledge you can give us, we can weaken her to the point where she can’t afford to not restore my memories.” There existed a sort of gleam in their eyes that made Lance all the more hesitant to divulge the information they wanted.

He shook his head. “Nope. I refuse. I won’t let you do that to her, regardless of what she’s done.”

Sighing, Hunk stepped into the conversation. “While I can understand your stance, Lance, Pidge’s also has some merit. Perhaps it won’t be our go to solution–” he gave Pidge a pointed look– “but we can do it as a back-up plan. After all, it isn’t right to use your abilities on someone without their consent.”

Arms crossed, Lance frowned. “Let’s at least just outright ask her first. If she says no, then we can discuss this.”

“Sounds good.” Hunk seemed to relax at that.

Pidge nodded, albeit a bit reluctant. “Alright.”

There is a silence that hung over them for a couple minutes, all uncertain of where to start. Then, Pidge broke it. “How are we going to ask Allura in the first place?”

They each begin to ponder over it. Cornering Allura at school would be risky and create the potential to cause trouble, but it would be mega suspicious to ask her to meet them somewhere outside of school considering none of them have ever done so before. It proved to be a tricky and somewhat delicate situation. What was unfortunate was that this was the easiest of the two options they had.

“Allura’s in choir, right?” Hunk said, speaking up. “We can go talk to her after choir ends. It’ll be in a relatively isolated part of the school so the risk of anyone eavesdropping in on us will be limited and thus she’ll be more likely to talk openly to us.”

“When is the next choir meeting?” Lance asked.

At once, Hunk and Pidge grabbed their phones, intent on finding out the information. Upon noticing the other, they began racing to see whose phone would load faster and who would get the information first.

“The next one is after school tomorrow,” Pidge said, a smirk on their face. Hunk appeared disappointed as he put his phone down. “It’ll end at four-twenty.”

“I’m glad I don’t have practice tomorrow then,” Lance stated. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to go.”

Pidge stood up, shoving their phone into their pocket. “We’ll meet up after forth across from the choir room, then.”

“Yep, Hunk agreed. “See you tomorrow.”

“Bye,” Lance said.

“See ya.” Giving them a half-wave, Pidge left to head home.

A period of motionless silence existed for a couple minutes after that. Then, Hunk stepped around the counter and sat down next to Lance.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Placing a reassuring smile on his face, Lance nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Standing up, he started towards the door. “I’ll be off. I’ve got some homework to do for tomorrow. Later.”

“Okay.”

Reaching the door, he hesitated in front of it, the desire to ask him prominent. However, he chose not to say anything and instead shut his mouth and left. At that point, he didn’t know who his response had been trying to convince: Hunk or himself.


	20. The Retrieval of Hidden Memories: Part Two

The next day, Lance hung out against the wall opposite of the doors to the choir room. Every so often, he checked his phone to see if there were any new messages from Hunk or Pidge. It was ten after four and school had ended forty minutes ago yet neither of them had arrived. The entire time, he had waited, alone and bored. A couple times, he debated leaving, but couldn’t bring himself to do so.

About a minute to when the meeting would conclude, the aforementioned pair rounded the corner at breakneck speed. They jerked to a stop right after passing him, panting and out of breath. Lance said nothing but regarded them both, annoyed.

“Sorry we’re late,” Hunk said.

“There was a last minute honor society meeting,” Pidge explained.

The explanation did little to abate his irritation with them. “You couldn’t have at least texted me?”

“It wasn’t our fault,” Pidge protested. “Ms. Lawson would’ve had our heads if our phones had been out while she was speaking.”

“Guys,” Hunk interrupted before they could keep going. “The meeting is ending. We don’t want to be too busy arguing that we miss Allura.”

“Sorry,” they both apologised.

The choir room doors flew open and students poured out. Scanning the crowd for Allura, he told the other two, “I think it’ll be better if I ask her, so don’t say anything.”

“What?” Lance questioned.

“Why?” Pidge asked, arms crossed, lips pulled into a frown.

Hunk glanced between them. “Seriously? You two were just arguing,” he said. Attention returning to the students filling the hallway, he spotted Allura and walked over. “Hey, Allura!”

She turned to face in his direction and waved. “Hi Hunk,” she greeted. “What’s up?” Her eyes glance over Hunk’s shoulder at Lance, who waves, and Pidge, whose expression doesn’t change.

“Do you think, maybe, that we could talk to you for a minute in private?” he asked.

“We?” Hunk gestured over at Lance and Pidge, both of whom were firmly pretending the other wasn’t there. Allura looked at them for a moment, her expression appearing to waver, before returning to Hunk and nodding. “Sure, I guess. I mean, I don’t have any reason to refuse.”

“Great,” he said. His eyes scanned the students flowing into the hall and either leaving or lingering with their friends. “Uh, where should we go? You know, to make sure no one overhears us?”

She hesitated and glanced around the hall, surveying the people around them. Then, she turned around and went over to the choir teacher.

“Ms. Shanton,” Allura called. “Would it be okay if we if we lingered in the choir room for a few minutes?”

The teacher raked her gaze over the four of them before focusing on Allura. “Of course, dear,” she said. “Just make sure to lock the door when you leave.”

“Thank you!” Allura beamed. “Have a good evening.”

“You as well, Allura,” Ms. Shanton said. “See you tomorrow.” She then followed the groups of students as they all headed to the front of the school.

“Come on,” Allura said, waving for them to follow her into the room.

Inside, they pulled some of chairs from the neatly lined rows and set them up in a sort of semicircle with Allura opposite of the other three. Allura began to mindlessly fiddle with the ring on one of her fingers.

“So, what’s up?” she said.

Pidge opened their mouth, about to speak, but Hunk stopped them, speaking up instead. Although they frowned, they closed their mouth and leaned back in their chair.

“We know,” Hunk told her.

Tilting her head, she asked, “Know what?” with a neutral and relaxed tone.

“That you–” he paused– “that you’re a siren. And that you messed with Pidge’s memories.”

“I’d very much like them back,” Pidge added before either could stop them.

Allura froze. For a moment, she was a doe in the headlights, eyes wide, posture stiff. Then, she let out a chuckle. “Me? A siren?” Again, she laughed. “I’m honoured to think you find my voice is good enough, but that’s not true. I’m just a regular human, nothing special about me.”

Hunk, Lance, and Pidge exchanged glances.

“Allura, you don’t need to keep up this facade. We said we know,” Hunk replied.

Standing up, she regarded them with an unusual coldness. “I am not a siren, as I have said,” she told them. “You make these accusations without proof. I am done with this conversation.” She proceeded to exit the room.

For a moment, the only sound was the door swinging from her force until coming to a stop, settling back in place.

“Well, that could’ve gone better,” Lance stated, breaking his silence.

“No duh, Sherlock,” Pidge remarked. “Anyway, plan b?”

Sighing, Hunk nodded. “If she’s not going to own up to it, I guess we have to.” His voice sounded far from enthusiastic about this development.

Pidge stood up. “Let’s head over to my house. We’ve got some planning to do.”

Lance and Hunk standing up as well, the three of them left the room and headed to the parking lot, clamoring into Hunk’s silver Nissan. As they drove, although Hunk had music playing that they all enjoyed, no one spoke or did anything to lift the somber mood surrounding them. Lance hated the whole idea and need of plan b, Pidge was lost in their thoughts, and Hunk–the good human he is–worried over both of his friends and the situation they were in. Therefore, they remained silent, up to the moment they entered Pidge’s house.

The minute the door closed, Pidge shifted, letting out a sigh and stretching out her wings. Walking up to their bedroom, their wings and tail twitched, giving away their hidden agitation. Entering their room, they flopped onto their bed. Hunk and Lance claimed one of the seats scattered throughout the room.

“Alright, plan b,” Pidge said, breaking the silence. “Use mer weaknesses to get her to comply. Lance?”

As two pairs of eyes fell on him, Lance couldn’t help a sense of nervousness from welling up and swallowed. “Um, it’s just kind of separation from water and fire,” he confessed.

“Okay, now we need to sort out how, where, and when we’re going to do this,” Hunk said. “The fire does seem like it’ll be a bit difficult to sort out. We’d need a significant supply to make sure that we can keep it going long enough. Though, our biggest challenge is going to be how to get her to agree to come with us to wherever we decide to do this.”

Lance frowned, thinking over all the stuff they needed to sort out. His thoughts snagged on the fire issue. Fire. Keith’s wings were covered in fire due to his heritage. An idea–admittedly, an uncertain one–formed in his mind. “I think I can handle to fire,” he offered. “I know someone.”

Pidge nodded. “Sounds good. I can handle the location.”

“Which leaves me to figure out how to get Allura there,” Hunk finished.

“Does that work for everyone?” Pidge asked. They all nodded. “Let’s do this then.”

Splitting up, Pidge hopped onto their laptop, Hunk began jotting down ideas of what to say, and Lance left the house.

~∞~

Keith groaned and sank further into the couch as the doorbell rang.

“It’s your turn,” Shiro said, sitting next to him.

“You go answer the door,” he grumbled. “I’m too comfortable.”

“Ugh, fine.” Shiro heaved himself off the couch and onto his feet. “But you’re cleaning up dinner.”

“Fine,” Keith said. He turned down the tv volume as Shiro answered the door.

“Oh, hi Lance.”

Keith’s heart stopped.

“What brings you here?”

“Hey Shiro. I need to speak with Keith, Lance told him. “Is he here?”

Keith shook his head, but Shiro ignored him. “Yeah, come on in,” he invited, stepping aside.

“Thanks,” Lance said, entering. “Hi Keith.” He waved at the phoenix hybrid. “Can we talk?”

At the sight of the other boy, a fresh wave of flames rolled over the feathers of Keith’s wings, making him glad the blanket hit them. “Sure,” he replied, trying not to let his discomfort show.

“Um, could it be in, you know, private?” Lance sent a shy look over his shoulder at Shiro.

“Oh,” Shiro realised. Closing the front door, he started towards the stairs. “I’ll just be upstairs if you need me.”

Shiro vanished upstairs and Keith curled up into himself, legs tucked flush to his body, angled to the side. His eyes followed Lance as he sat down on a vacant chair and met his gaze. Neither had talked to one another since the visit on Saturday–which one might recall ended with Lance running out for a reason Keith didn’t know. Tongue a heavy weight in his mouth, he said nothing, watching Lance.

Scratching the back of his neck, Lance’s azure eyes lowered to the floor beneath the other. “Hey, I’m sorry about Saturday.” Keith blinked. “It was rude of me to leave as I did with no explanation. I owe you one.” Still, Keith said nothing and Lance took that as a go ahead for said explanation. “I don’t know, it was just a shock to see a drawing of me like...that and my body went on autopilot. I know you deserve a better explanation than that, but I...don’t feel comfortable with telling you everything, you know? I’m sorry.”

Keith’s wings twitched. He did know, did understand, how that felt and–maybe, just maybe–he wished he didn’t. However, regardless of that, he nodded. “Yeah, I know.” Unable to bring himself to say more, his mouth shut and stayed.

“I-uh-know this is poor timing, but I need a favour from you,” Lance admitted after figuring out that the other boy wouldn’t say anything else. Staying silent, Keith continued to stare at him. “This might sound...strange to say the least. I need some of your fire. You know, from your wings.”

Instinctively, the mentioned wings folded up and pressed close to Keith’s back, hugging his sides. Meanwhile, Keith’s face showed the first emotion aside from cold reservation. “You want what?” he asked, bewildered. He hoped he had heard wrong, but Lance repeated himself and his blood ran cold. “No. Absolutely not.”

“But–” Lance began to protest.

Shaking his head, Keith stood up and started walking towards the stairs. “Nope,” he reiterated. “I refuse.”

Lance shot to his feet and followed after him. “Please,” he begged. “I-I need it.”

Pausing midstep, hand on the railing, Keith glanced over his shoulder back at him. “For what?”

At that, Lance fell silent. Before he answered, he thought about it for a considerable and almost suspicious amount of time. “Um, it’s for a science experiment?” he tried.

Turning away, he huffed. “What science experiment? It’s not one for chemistry.”

“No, it’s not,” Lance agreed. “It’s a little side project thing me, Pidge, and Hunk are doing.”

“With Hunk and Pidge?” Keith echoed. Scowling, he crossed his arms over his chest. “What, pray tell, are you going to tell them about the source of the fire if I agree to give you some of mine?”

“Nothing, I swear.” Lance jumped to promise this. “All I’ve said is that I know someone.” He fixed the other with a burning, pleading look. “Please, Keith.”

Although he attempted to remain stubborn and–in his opinion–held out reasonably well, in the end, he whiltered underneath Lance’s stare, which he could feel even if he couldn’t see it, and the tone of his voice. Sighing, his wings dropped and relaxed. “Alright, fine.”

With those two words, Lance lit up, beaming. “Thank you! You won’t regret this!”

Gloomily, Keith thought to himself, “Yes, I will,” but didn’t vocalise that. Descending the stairs, he headed to the kitchen, Lance tentatively following him.

They entered the kitchen and Keith bent down to retrieve a glass jar from one of the bottom cabinets. Setting the jar down on the counter and placing the lid next to it, he took a deep breath, almost not believing he had agreed to this but keenly aware of why he had. Unfurling one of his wings, he held his hand next to it, palm open and facing up. Carefully, he coaxed a bit of flame from his wing into his waiting hand. Acquiring it, he tilted his hand and let the flame slide into the jar. Keith repeated this twice. A sizeable fire blazed within the jar when he stopped.

About to seal the jar, he felt a hand on his still outstretched wing. He hadn’t been paying attention to Lance, so absorbed in his task of collecting flames. The hand moved along his wing, petting the feathers. Realising what was happening, Keith’s face flushed a deep red, his heartbeat sprinting off making him worry if Lance could hear it, and a fresh wave of fire burst to life across his wings against his wishes.

Lance, having no immunity to fire for obvious reasons, yelped in pain as the flames licked the skin of his hand. Jerking his hand away, he clutched it protectively against his chest, a stream of whimpers forming in his throat.

At the first yelp, Keith whirled around. Sparks of panic danced in his purple eyes, which only caused the fire consuming his wings to grow.

“No, no, no,” he muttered in a stream, practically chanting it in his panic. Taking Lance’s and, he held it out to examine the damage. “I’m so sorry.” Damp warmth of tears traveled down his face but evaporated before it could drip to the floor. Keeping his mind enough to remember how to treat burns, he dragged Lance to the sink and turned on the water, making certain it was cold before bringing the other’s hand underneath the stream.

As soon as the water hit the burn, Lance hissed. “I’m sorry,” Keith reiterated, hating and berating himself for having allowed Lance to touch his wings at all and for not paying attention.

Leaving Lance to hold his hand under the water himself, Keith went to the fridge. He retrieved the bottle of aloe they always made sure they had. Returning to Lance’s side, he waited a couple more moments. Then, deciding the water finished what all it could do, he eased the other’s hand out and turned off the faucet. Collecting more aloe than was likely necessary in his hand, he began to rub it over the burned skin.

Lance exhaled as the aloe eased the burn. “Thank you,” he said.

Continuing to rub the aloe in, Keith but his lip and chewed on it for a moment before responding. “It was my fault you got burned in the first place. It’s the least I can do,” he replied. “I’m sorry. I should’ve stopped you.” Eyes downcast, he missed the soft look Lance gave him.

“Hey, it’s alright,” he assured him. “I made the decision so don’t blame yourself. Besides, I’m still alive. No permanent damage done.”

Frowning, Keith said nothing in response. Getting caught up in his thoughts, he didn’t realise all the aloe had been absorbed into Lance’s sun-kissed skin until Lance himself removed his hand from Keith’s hold. Blinking, he stared at his now empty hands before dropping them. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“It’s okay.” Lance glanced down at his hand and flexed his fingers. A soft smile appeared on his face. “My hand feels much better. Thank you.”

Looking up at Lance, his eyes fell when that soft smile landed on him. His wings drooped towards the ground, a heavy weight of guilt and shame placed upon them.

Seeming unable to help himself, Lance reached out to brush his feathers once again, but Keith noticed and shifted out of the way, turning away and facing the counter.

“Your hand,” Keith reminded. Fear gnawed at his heart, not wanting the same thing to happen again.

“Hey, it’ll be okay,” Lance replied, appearing entirely unconcerned. “You won’t hurt me on purpose, right?” Keith shook his head. “Then I trust that you won’t lose control.” For a reason Keith couldn’t comprehend, Lance reached out and began to run his hand over the other’s iridescent red feathers, smoothing them down.

“Beautiful,” Lance breathed.

Biting the inside of his lip, he fought to reign in the emotions threatening to take over and encase his wings in a roaring inferno. While this time it was easier to do since he been expecting it, he still struggled. A light pink tinge consumed his pale cheeks. He was torn between jerking away from Lance’s hand or leaning into his touch.

The next couple of minutes, until Lance dropped his hand, stretched out for eons. Once his hand lifted off Keith’s wing, time sped back up and Keith let out a quiet whimper that surprised himself.

“See?” Lance said cheerfully. He showed Keith how his hand hadn’t gotten injured more so than it already was. “No excess harm done.”

Unfortunately, instead of easing the other’s nerves and fears, Lance’s hand in front of his eyes only served as an anchor back to reality and threw him into a torrent of guilt once more.

Noticing Keith’s abrupt decline in mood, Lance frowned. Spinning him around, Keith’s back now pressed up against the counter and his eyes staring down at the ground, refusing to look up at him, Lance sighed. Lifting the other’s head, he forced Keith to meet his eyes. Shimmering sorrow resided within dark purple. Keith attempted to wiggle out of his hold, averting his eyes off to the side, but Lance refused to relent.

“Hey,” he said, speaking in a soft and gentle tone. “Look at me.” Reluctant, Keith complied. “This–” he held up his palm to show him the burn– “Is not your fault.” Keith’s eyes had shifted to his hand and Lance drew his attention back to his eyes. “If anyone is to blame, it is me. I caught you off guard. Besides, it’ll heal. Everything does. Okay?” Keith swallowed then, slowly, nodded. Content, Lance let go, dropping his hand away from under the other’s chin, and stepped back, suddenly aware of how close they had been. “I–” A sense of awkwardness washed over him and he looked around for something to change the topic with, which he found with the jar containing a small blaze. “I should take this and go,” he said, stepping around Keith and grabbing the jar. “I’ll-uh-see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, tomorrow,” Keith agreed, his voice sounding distant.

With an odd sort of dip of his head, Lance–gripping the jar tightly against his chest–turned around and exited the house. The sound of the door closing echoed through Keith’s very being.

Legs unable to support him any longer, Keith collapsed to the floor. Something akin to a void opened up in his chest and seemed to swallow him whole. One leg underneath him and the other skewed off to the side, he leaned forward and rested his forehead on the side of the painted wood counter, his wings spread out on the floor behind him and, for once, they felt cold.

When Shiro came back downstairs who knows how long after Lance left, he spotted Keith and sat down beside him. “How did it go?” he inquired.

“Fire,” Keith answered. “I guess.”

“Well, look at the brightside,” Shiro suggested. “Nothing happened that you two couldn’t handle, right? I’d consider that a success.”

He let out a laugh, short and curt. “Yeah, let’s go with that.

Deciding a change in topic was needed, Shiro asked, “Wanna go watch another movie?” Silent, Keith nodded. Smiling, he stood up and offered the other his hand, helping Keith to his feet and leading him to the living room sofa. Releasing Keith, he walked over to the case and picked out a new movie. Exchanging the disks in the DVD player, he returned to the couch. Settling down, they started up the movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Constructive criticism and feedback is welcome

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Constructive feedback and advice is welcome.


End file.
